Taser deaths in the US

 The data set originates from The Guardian it is available from Kaggle.

Before analysing the dataset I had innocently believed that Tasers were non lethal but this is not the case. The Metropolitan Police (London,UK) describe Tasers as 'less lethal'. The US data shows 50 people died in 2015 in the US as a result of being shot by a Taser. This number dropped to 22 in 2016.

Some summary stats
number killed by police officers in 2015 in the US using a Taser = 50 (4% of total number of people killed by police)
number killed by police officers in 2016 in the US using a Taser = 22 (2% of total number of people killed by police)

of the 50 killed in 2015 how many were armed:

​No         46
Other       2
Knife       1
Firearm     1

of the 22 killed in 2016 how many were armed:

No       18
Other     3
Knife     1

Compare these numbers to those who were shot dead by police using a gun:

in 2015, how many were armed

Firearm               551
Knife                 152
No                    114
Other                  61
Non-lethal firearm     47
Vehicle                44
Unknown                44
Disputed                4

in 2016, how many were armed

Firearm               496
Knife                 154
Unknown               105
No                     93
Other                  64
Non-lethal firearm     46
Vehicle                35
Disputed               11

Enthnicity of those killed by Taser in 2015:
White                     21
Black                     19
Hispanic/Latino            7
Asian/Pacific Islander     2
Native American            1

Enthnicity of those killed by Taser in 2016:
White              14
Black               5
Hispanic/Latino     2
Unknown             1

Gender, 2015:
Male      49
Female     1

Gender, 2016:
Male      21
Female     1

Age stats, 2015:
max: 62
median: 38
min: 18

Age stats, 2016:
max: 66
median: 39
min: 18

In summay the majority of people who died after being shot by a Taser were black or white males and were unarmed.