'They made me look like a monster'
Tazing victim contradicts police version of incident

By Leslie Wood
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Waylon Radosevich is confined to a Phoenix hospital bed as he waits for the swelling in his eye to go down.

It's been days since the 25-year-old's confrontation with a Gallup police officer landed him the hospital and still no word as to whether he will regain full use of his eye.

Gallup police assert Radosevich was struck in the eye by a department-issued tazer gun during a struggle between him and officer Andrew Antone last week. But Radosevich says the tazing was unwarranted and the weapon was fired into his upper eyelid without warning from police.

"There was no struggle over the tazer gun," Radosevich said during a phone interview.

Radosevich also disputes most of the information that was released by a police spokeswoman about the incident.

"They made me look like a monster," he said. "I want to get my side of the story out there."

Radosevich said the night began when he found his 17-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Rosales, inside a vehicle with two of her friends. Radosevich said he knocked on the vehicle's window and took Rosales' cell phone from her hands and carried her to his vehicle because she was not wearing any shoes.

The pair then drove to a remote location behind the Little Sisters of the Poor so they could talk. Radosevich said that's when officer Antone walked up to the vehicle and demanded he get out of the car. Rosales' friends had called police out of concern that Radosevich had talked to her angrily and thrown her into a vehicle, according to information released by the Gallup Police Department.

Radosevich said he complied with the officer's demands and began to remove the car's key from the ignition. Within the next few seconds, Radosevich said the officer pointed the tazer gun in his direction and shot him in the eye.

Radosevich said he immediately went into shock and began to shake uncontrollably.

"I felt this big piece of meat hanging from my eye. I could feel the shock all the way through my brain," he said.

Radosevich said officer Antone kept trying to throw him to the ground, but that he ran from the officer because he was afraid additional damage would be caused to his eye.

Radosevich said he ran to a house on the 600 block of McKee Drive, so he could care of his wound and then tried to flag down an officer who was patrolling the area.

Radosevich said the officer began to run at him "like a linebacker" and a chase ensued. Eventually, Radosevich was apprehended and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

"As God as my witness, I wanted their help, but they were acting too violent," Radosevich said of police. "My eye was fried like a piece of popcorn."

Due the severity of his injury, Radosevich was transported to a Phoenix hospital where doctors are waiting to see if permanent damage was caused to his retina.

Radosevich said he is "emotionally wrecked" as a result of the altercation and that he doesn't want to cause additional trouble with police.

"I'm not trying to cause trouble; I'm just trying to prove my point," he said.

Rosales, Radosevich's girlfriend who is 5 months pregnant with his child, witnessed the incident and said Radosevich was tazed without warning. She said Radosevich never hit her or acted inappropriately.

Erin Toadlena-Pablo, a spokeswoman for the police department, said the agency had no additional comment about the situation.