Investigation underway into man’s death following struggle with deputies

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    St. Louis (KMOV) — Police have identified the man who died during a struggle with St. Louis Sheriff’s deputies who were serving him an eviction order.

Two deputies arrived at Beverly Place, north of Delmar, to serve an eviction notice.

Police said a deputy deployed his Taser but they aren’t certain if the man was hit by it.

Officers said 37-year-old Joshua Kessinger became combative during the eviction and a fight began. It was during that struggle that a deputy deployed his Taser but the struggle continued.

Once deputies took Kessinger into custody, they said they noticed he was unresponsive. EMS took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“The individual attacked the deputies. One of our deputies deployed Taser to subdue the individual and the respondent became unresponsive,” Deputy Gregg Christian said.

Neither deputy fired their gun.

“Obviously Taser is preferred response to firearms,” Christian said.

Serving court orders, Christian said, can be dangerous work.

“We have to do a lot of different times or orders, warrants, mental health pick-ups, so it’s one of the more dangerous things deputies do,” Christian said.

Law enforcement said the man had known mental health issues.

“As always it’s a tragedy when there is a loss of life so this is something we are taking seriously,” Christian said.

That’s why Christian said Sheriff Vernon Betts has pushed for additional training for St. Louis’ deputies. While trained on using tasers like St. Louis police officers, deputies are not post-certified like other members of law enforcement.

“It does highlight the need for increased training and anybody, from any department would tell you more training is better,” Christian said.

Betts told News 4 one of the deputies is a 30-year veteran and the other has been with the department for 16 years. Both of them have been placed on administrative leave as the department, police and the Circuit Attorney’s Office conduct an investigation.

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