SALT LAKE CITY — Formal charges were filed Friday against a woman accused of shocking a 9-year-old boy with a Taser.
April Shurtleff, 37, of Riverton, was charged in 3rd District Court with child abuse, a second-degree felony; two counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; and two counts of making a threat of violence, a class B misdemeanor.
On Oct. 2, a 9-year-old boy and his 10-year-old friend were riding scooters in a church parking lot near 12920 S. 2700 West. While in the parking lot, a car pulled in, parked, and a woman who was driving was “holding her phone horizontally, possibly filming the boys, which made them feel uncomfortable,” according to charging documents.
The boys left the parking lot, but returned a short time later. Shurtleff was still there, the charges state.
As the boys rode their scooters behind her car, Shurtleff rolled down her window, brandished her Taser and exclaimed, “I’m going to (expletive) tase you!” according to the charges.
The two boys began riding away on their scooters, but Shurtleff “began backing her car out of the parking stall and drove toward the boys at a high rate of speed,” the charges state.
The 9-year-old feared he was going to be run over by the car, according to the charges. Shurtleff then got out of her car and ran after him.
“Shurtleff reached her arm around (the boy) from behind and placed the Taser on (the boy’s) chest, activating the Taser for about four seconds,” the charges state.
The boy was screaming and crying as Shurtleff drove away.
Following media coverage of the incident, Shurtleff went to the Riverton Police Department to give her side of the story, according to the charges. She claimed she was in the parking lot and told the boys that she had a Taser and that if she were to use it they would be on the ground defecating, the charges state. But she denied actually using it.
But after detectives found a pink Taser in the trunk of Shurtleff’s car and compared it to the marks left on the boy’s chest, she was arrested, the charges state.