The incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog.
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Relatives tonight said police would not have used the Taser had they known the former striker’s medical history.
He went on to score at Wembley in 1994 as Villa beat Manchester United to lift the League Cup.
According to the BBC, a neighbor described seeing Atkinson being Tasered after “stumbling towards” the police at around 1:30 in the morning. “Nobody deserves to die as a result of something like that”, Quinn said.
Following the news of Atkinson’s death, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday paid tribute to the former player, tweeting out their condolences.
Following relegation, Big Ron recommended Atkinson to his former club Real Sociedad, but by the time the notorious manager left Hillsborough for Villa Park he knew Dalian was ready to return to England despite a positive spell in the Basque country and quickly snapped him up for his new side.
West Mercia officers had been called to the house of Atkinson’s father, Ernest, in Telford, Shropshire amid concerns over an individual’s safety.
Mr Atkinson said: “He had some health issues that he was trying to get through and that’s why his heart was weak”.
“And because he continued to step forward once or twice – non-threatening – they deployed the Taser”, Quinn said. “How do they know the health of the guy or the girl that they are affecting?”
“It’s a very sad day and a massive shock”, Hirst told Press Association Sport. He scored 10 goals in 21 league games for Istanbul-based Fenerbahce after leaving Villa.
“When you finish as a footballer, all of a sudden at 34 or 35 you have no routine and no structure to your life, and that can be a major problem”. He finished up at clubs in Saudi Arabia and South Korea, far from the spotlight of the EPL, which he helped christen. Former soldier Spencer Beynon died after being tasered in Llanelli, South Wales in June.
Eight of those deaths had been investigated by the time the 2014 report was published, and in none of those cases was the use of a Taser found to have directly caused a death, according to the report.
“Our investigation team have been securing and preserving relevant evidence, and identifying witnesses”.
There were 10,329 uses of Tasers by police forces in England and Wales in 2015 – a 2% increase compared with 2014.
The most games he played for a club was 85 for Aston Villa, but he is forever remembered by English fans for the goal scored for Villa in 1992, the first year of the English Premier League.
Mr Atkinson’s brother, Kenroy, 53, told The Sun the ex-Premier League star was “not in his right mind” on the night of his death.
Other former Villa teammates took to Twitter to pay tribute to Atkinson soon after confirmation of his death.
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The club today announced it would hold a minute’s applause at their upcoming match against Huddersfield to honour him.
