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Colorado Springs, CO – A video has gone viral of a wanted man in Colorado Springs doing a face-flop on Wednesday after he was hit with a Taser (video below).
The incident occurred at about 9 a.m. on Aug. 15 when officers were attempting to make contact with a wanted man named Lilton Maestas in a neighborhood near Academy and Galley in Colorado Springs, KKTV reported.
According to the police blotter, officers were told that 37-year-old Maestas might be armed.
He was wanted on a felony assault warrant, police said.
When police approached Maestas, he fled on foot, which began the chase that would become the viral video.
Neighbor Jacob Duke saw the foot pursuit unfold and pulled out his cell phone to record the chaos.
Duke said he was at a stop sign in his neighborhood when he saw a Colorado Springs police officer running toward him, The Wichita Eagle reported.
“I saw a cop running towards my direction at an intersection [and] thought he was coming at me,” he told the newspaper. “Then I see another one, so I think, ‘Wait, is this like a cop charity fun run trying to raise money?’”
Duke said he quickly realized there was nothing fun about the chase he was witnessing.
“Then I see the yellow shirt guy jump out from the bushes in the apartment complex,” he said. “That’s when I started filming.”
Police said they had given Maestas “multiple orders” to stop and surrender, but the wanted man wasn’t having it, The Wichita Eagle reported.
That’s when an officer drew his Taser to assist in the apprehension of Maestas, according to the police blotter.
In the four-second video that was filmed from a moving vehicle, the officer raised the less-lethal weapon and deployed it.
“He pulls out a Taser gun, gets the guy right in the side and the guy just like fish flops right on the concrete. Poor guy, but that’s what you get I guess,” Duke told KKTV.
In the video, Maestas went stiff when he was zapped, and then fell face-first into the street beside the curb.
The video showed the officer stopped just steps beyond where the suspect fell and turned around.
Duke, who said he’s been Tased in the past, said the man’s face plant on the sidewalk looked worse than the hit from the Taser.
“I’ve been hit by a few, we won’t go into detail for that. But I will say I didn’t flop like that. I mean I stood my ground for a minute,” he said.
The police blotter said Maestas was taken to the hospital to be checked out for non-life-threatening injuries sustained when he fell on his face.
Upon release from the hospital, he was booked into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center for his felony warrant, according to The Wichita Eagle.
Watch the suspect do a perfect face plant in the video below: