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(KSL News) The Utah man who claims he was wrongfully tasered by a Highway Patrol Officer is taking his story nationwide.
Jared Massey appeared on CNN's "American Morning" today and said he was scared for his life and thought the Taser was a real gun.
He said, "You've got to realize that at the time, I thought it was a gun. I was scared to death. I was scared for my life. I had my 6½-months-pregnant wife in the car, 15-month-old baby. You know those panic thoughts start going through my mind of what's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to them? I really felt that this cop would shoot to harm me."
The Utah Highway Patrol is investigating the incident to see if the deputy acted improperly.
This morning UHP spokesman Jeff Nigbur told CNN the UHP is trying to look through the emotions involved and examine the facts. "I think there was a lot of emotion involved in this situation. I would even go as far as saying a little bit of ego involved on both sides, and you know we want to look at this. Every Taser deployment, at least from our troopers of the Highway Patrol, is a serious matter, and we look into each and every one of those," Nigbur said.
Massey's story was brought to the attention of the national media after he obtained dash-cam video of the incident and posted it on YouTube.
That video now has been viewed more than 400,000 times.
