The Minnesota State Patrol defended its use of a Taser on a Fridley man. The stun gun was used after he punched a trooper and tried to drive from a crash scene in rush hour.

A State Patrol videotape released Thursday shows troopers struggling to subdue a motorist who died after being shot with a Taser following a car crash in January. See video HERE.

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Troopers arrest Mark Backlund.

Officers responded after Mark Backlund, 29, crashed into a central median barrier on Interstate 694 in New Brighton. The Fridley man died about 40 minutes after the crash due to mixed drug use and heart problems, the autopsy report said.

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner declined Monday to file any charges against five troopers who responded to the rush-hour crash. She said that the evidence indicated the troopers violated no laws and that Tasering was a "nonfactor" in Backlund's death. She based her decision partly on the autopsy, two eyewitness accounts from motorists and a patrol car video.

The patrol showed that 10-minute videotape to reporters Thursday in St. Paul.

Driver appeared impaired

The video showed Trooper Tim Koehler arriving at the crash scene at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 15. Koehler was heard on the audio track asking Backlund several times if he was OK or if he was diabetic. Koehler then leaned over and turned the car off. Then he yelled and jumped back from Backlund's vehicle. Backlund had punched him in the face, said patrol Lt. Mark Peterson. Peterson said the diabetic question was asked because Backlund appeared to be impaired.

Four other troopers -- two rookies and their field-training officers -- arrived within minutes. Two men who had stopped to help are seen in front of Backlund's car and traffic flows by throughout the incident.

Sgt. Jason Bartell, who trains troopers in Taser use, said when Trooper Troy McCormack first fired the Taser, only one of the two probes hit Backlund, who had been reaching to turn on the car's ignition.

The Taser was fired to protect Backlund, the troopers and the two motorists in front of the car, Peterson said.

Backlund was Tasered again without effect as he pushed out of the front passenger door. His driver door was wedged shut against the concrete median barrier. As he came out, with a Taser probe still stuck in his shoulder, three troopers wrestled him to the median pavement. McCormack pressed the Taser against Backlund's thigh and the gun sent 12,000 volts into him, Bartell said.

Backlund couldn't resist during the five seconds the electric current flowed, allowing the three troopers trying to hold him to handcuff him. He was extremely strong and continued kicking after the current stopped, Peterson said. An ambulance appeared and took him to Unity Hospital in Fridley, where he died at 5:40 p.m., the autopsy report said.

Cocaine, marijuana, others

The Anoka County medical examiner ruled that Backlund died from mixed drug use, including acute cocaine abuse. Tests also detected marijuana, a painkiller and other drugs. Contributing factors included police restraint and heart conditions.

Backlund was en route to pick up his parents at the airport when he crashed. His father, Gordon Backlund, said Thursday of the video: "It is really difficult to watch the last five minutes of your son's life. I still don't understand why you would Taser an accident victim sitting in the driver's seat."

Bartell said that the troopers followed patrol policy "to the T" and that no policy changes were made after the freeway incident. "I believe the Taser was a huge help," he added.

The patrol's four-page policy on Tasers says they can be used to control a person who is, or is reasonably expected to become, violent, physically aggressive or who endangers himself, a trooper or others if the trooper didn't use the Taser.

Bartell said troopers receive two days of training before receiving a Taser and must be recertified annually. He said 100 of the patrol's approximately 535 troopers now carry Tasers.

The freeway incident was the State Patrol's only Taser-related death since troopers started carrying the weapons in August. Before that, during a one-year pilot test, troopers fired Tasers 33 times, with no known health-related incidents, according to the Public Safety Department.