Frisco police officer tased in act of charity

PLANO, TX – Sgt. David Brunson will tell you getting tased is a lot better than getting pepper sprayed.

“Pepper spray hurts a lot longer,” he said.

The Frisco Police Department sergeant recently challenged his basic police officer class, comprising graduating cadets from the Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Richardson police departments, to raise $1,000 for the Frisco Family Services Food Pantry. In return, he said, he would allow himself to get tased.

They raised the money.

As a result, Brunson received his end of the bargain.

“It completely shuts down your entire muscle groups,” he said. “You can’t do anything. You just kind of go down. It hurts. Certainly it hurts, but it’s short-lived.”

After Brunson got tased, he wanted to use the moment to teach his students, who he calls his “kids,” a lesson.

“Once they pulled the prongs out, I started doing push-ups just to show the kids that just because the tasers hit them and take them down doesn’t mean they’re out of the fight,” he said. “So you’ve always got to be prepared for whatever might come after that.”

This wasn’t the first time Brunson had gotten tased in an act of charity. The year before, he had challenged his class at the time, which was smaller, to raise $500 for the same organization.

Brunson said he always encourages his classes to give to the community.

“Because that’s really what we’re supposed to do as police officers,” he said, “give of ourselves regardless of the outcome. And so I think it’s important we take that one step forward and truly give to the community whenever we can. So it’s more of an inspiring thing for them. I try to inspire them to just do good things.”

Brunson said he chose to have the money go to the food pantry in part because his wife had experience volunteering there.

“But also, in the times that we’re in right now, there are so many people out there that are struggling with COVID and losing jobs and things of that nature,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s a tough economy, and people need help.”

Frisco Police Chief David Shilson presented the $1,000 donation to Frisco Family Services on Thursday morning.

“We appreciate the support and awesome donation,” Frisco Family Services said in a Thursday social media post. “Thank you, Sgt. Brunson for taking a taser for the team.”