South Jersey police officer is charged with aggravated assault for firing a Taser at an ATV operator

A South Jersey police officer has been charged with aggravated assault for firing a Taser at an ATV operator, causing him to flip and crash the vehicle and suffer serious injuries, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Tuesday.

Officer Tyquan McIntosh, 28, of the Chesilhurst Police Department in Camden County, was charged Monday with the third-degree offense, state prosecutors said, alleging that the officer used excessive force during an arrest.

The incident occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on Aug. 12 when McIntosh, while on patrol, spotted the 23-year-old man operating an unregistered ATV on a public street, the state Attorney General’s Office said. The officer followed in his vehicle until the ATV stalled, then got out and ordered the man off the ATV.

At that point, the man restarted his ATV and began driving away, prosecutors said. McIntosh then discharged his Taser, they said, hitting the man in the back and causing him to crash his ATV.

The man was treated for a fractured vertebra, a fractured collarbone, and a concussion at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The statewide policy on Tasers at the time expressly prohibited a police officer from discharging a Taser against the operator of a moving vehicle unless use of deadly force is needed, the Attorney General’s Office said.

McIntosh, of Minotola, Atlantic County, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His attorney, Timothy Quinlan, did not immediately respond to messages left for him.