Riverton police arrest woman who allegedly used a Taser on child

RIVERTON — A woman accused of shocking a 9-year-old boy with a Taser was arrested on Wednesday, Riverton police confirmed.

April Shurtleff, 37, was arrested Wednesday for investigation of child abuse, a second-degree felony; aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; and threats of violence, a misdemeanor. She was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday, according to police records.

On Friday, Kelly Wright-Green says her son was playing in the parking lot of a church building near 12900 South and 2700 West in Riverton when he noticed a woman taking photos of him from her car.

It was after the young boy confronted the woman when things took a turn.

Wright-Green says the woman yelled at her son and threatened him with a handheld Taser, ultimately shocking him with it in the chest.

When police arrived at the church, the boy was conscious and breathing, but was clearly distraught and in pain, according to a jail report for Shurtleff.

An officer checked the boy for injuries and saw two marks on the boy's chest that "looked to be from a two prong taser," the report said.

Earlier, the boy and his friend had been riding their scooters in the parking lot of the church building, which they do often, the jail report said. At some point, the boy noticed a woman, later identified as Shurtleff, sitting in her car and holding her phone horizontally, possibly filming the kids, according to the report.

The kids felt uncomfortable and decided to leave the parking lot to go to a nearby park. After some time, they believed the woman had left, so they returned to the church parking lot, the report states. They noticed the woman's vehicle was still there but continued riding their scooters.

The boy rode his scooter behind the woman's car, and she rolled down the window, showing the boys a portable, personal protection Taser, according to the report.

"She then yelled 'I am going to f—ing tase you,'" the report states.

The two kids then started riding away from the car, but the woman backed her vehicle out of the parking spot and began driving towards them at a high speed, according to the report. Afraid that the woman would hit him with her car, the boy began running away, the report states. The woman then got out of her car and started chasing the boy.

"She eventually caught up to him, reached her arm from behind, and placed the Taser on (the boy's) chest, activating the taser for what (he) described as about four seconds," the jail report says. "(The boy) began screaming and crying, and the female quickly got into her vehicle and drove away."

The kids then saw the car drive away. Police initially sought the public’s help identifying the woman’s car from surveillance footage.

At some point after the footage of the car was released, Shurtleff interviewed with police, according to the jail report. It's not clear if she turned herself in, or if police contacted her another way.

Shurtleff admitted to police that the car in the footage was hers, but she denied threatening the kids and initially denied that she owned a Taser, the report states. Later, she told police she did own a Taser and showed it to the kids, but didn't use it on them.

Shurtleff told police where the car was, and where the Taser was in the car. Police later searched the car and found a personal use two-prong Taser in the trunk. The Taser appeared to match the burn marks on the boy's chest, the report states.

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