A man died Saturday night after Las Vegas police shocked him with a Taser, the fifth such death since the weapons were introduced in the valley more than two years ago as an alternative to lethal force.

In the latest case, police were called at 8:59 p.m. regarding a suicide attempt at the Chapel Hill condominiums, 9620 West Russell Road, 911 operating logs show.

The call came from a woman who told police her mentally ill son was off his medication and was trying to commit suicide, said Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy of the Metropolitan Police Department. The woman said she was afraid and had locked herself in a bedroom, and she also told police her son was in the living room with a screwdriver, McCurdy said.

Officers arrived, went into the woman's condo and ordered the son to show his hands. When he turned his back to the officers, the Taser was used, McCurdy said.

The officer was about five feet away when the Taser was fired, sending two wires tipped with metal hooks and 50,000 volts of electricity into the man. The man swiped at the wires from the Taser and continued to resist police, McCurdy said. The officers tackled the man and cuffed him, he said.

The man then was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Clark County coroner's office will conduct an autopsy, which will include a toxicology report.

The man's name, age and other information about him, such as his height, weight and criminal history, if any, were not released by police Sunday.

A woman with tears in her eyes who answered the door at the unit where the incident happened said she was the man's sister but did not want to give her name or her brother's name. She would not talk about what had happened. The family has sought the counsel of a lawyer, she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada was quick to criticize the police department's policy on Tasers and its training and handling of situations regarding the mentally ill.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU of Nevada, said every situation needs to be looked at individually, but "there is a disturbing pattern we are seeing in circumstances of someone with a mental health issue and they (the police) come in and give them an order and when they do not comply they Taser him for noncompliance. There are mental health facilities all around the valley and the country where they do not have to Taser or shoot the mentally ill in order to deal with them."

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, criticized the police department for poor training and tactics in handling the mentally ill and not making adjustments to department policy.

"It's maddening at this point," he said of the five deaths. Peck wants the Taser to be placed further down on officers' list of use of force options because of its lethal tendencies, he said. Peck also wants the department to issue a policy statement that Tasers should not be used as a compliance tool.

"The police department continuously touts its crisis intervention teams and training, but the track record leaves a lot to be desired and raises serious questions about the competency of those teams and the adequacy of that training," Peck said. "Poor crisis intervention, poor training and poor tactics is a toxic combination and has proven to be deadly."

This is the second time this year that a person has died after being zapped with a Taser by Las Vegas police.

On June 3, Felipe Herrera had attacked officers after a traffic stop, police said. Herrera died after he was struck by a baton and shocked multiple times by Tasers.

The Taser has been the subject of controversy across the nation as the number of deaths related to the police tool has climbed into the 100s.

The weapon was added to the Metropolitan Police Department's arsenal in 2004.

The ACLU of Nevada is involved in a lawsuit against Taser International and Las Vegas police regarding the August 2004 death of Keith Tucker.

Tucker, 47, died after police stunned him four times with Tasers. Medical examiners determined that cocaine in Tucker's system with the shock from the Tasers and the effects of a police baton contributed to his death. The wrongful death lawsuit related to Tucker's death was filed in federal court in October 2005.

In June 2005, 47-year-old Russell Walker died after Las Vegas police shocked him three times with a Taser while he was handcuffed. He had cocaine in his system when he died, the autopsy report shows.

In February 2004, 26-year-old William Lomax died after Las Vegas police shocked him with a Taser seven times while he was handcuffed. Lomax was alleged to have ingested PCP just before his death, according to the coroner's report.

The coroner's office has made it a policy to conduct inquests into Taser-related deaths.

Officers actions in the four earlier cases were ruled justified.