An 18-year-old attending summer classes at the University of Cincinnati has died after being stunned by a campus police officer.

Officers received a 911 call about an assault at Turner Hall early yesterday.

The university's assistant police chief, Jeff Corcoran, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the teenager approached officers in the dorm hallway, appearing agitated and angry.

Mr Corcoran said officers ordered him to back off, but he refused. He was then hit once by an officer's stun gun.

Afterwards the teenager appeared incoherent and went into cardiac arrest after paramedics arrived. He was pronounced dead at University Hospital.

The police department has suspended the use of stun guns until the teenager's cause of death is established. Authorities are also investigating the original 911 call.

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