Atkinson died at about 3:00 a.m. BST on August 15. Police had been called to Atkinson's father's home in Telford after Atkinson went into a drunken rage, according to The Mirror. He had been banging on his father's door, grabbed his father by the neck and made death threats, according to the player's brother.
When the police arrived, neighbour Paula Quinn told ITN/The Irish Independent that she saw Atkinson stumble toward them:
"... Then he tasered him and he dropped like a lead balloon, and when he was down they started kicking him. The policeman, and the one policeman actually said to the officer who was actually kicking, 'back off, back off, back off'."
"Then I heard the Taser. You can hear that 'zzz' sound. They kept tasering him. That just seemed to be constant, on and off, on and off taser, but he was on the floor already. They tasered him about four or five times, but long periods of tasering for 10 or 11 seconds at a time."
West Mercia police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Quinn gave a similar account to the BBC. In both interviews she says one officer repeatedly kicked Atkinson while he was on the ground, after he had been brought down by a Taser:
"The police officers that were there, the only ones that were there sort of scrambled in towards him and started kicking him around the body, and shouting and they were shouting and kicking so much, that's all I can hear - the boots hitting him."
"And then the officer who released the Taser stepped back while the other officer still continued to kick and then I could hear him shout to the other officer that was still kicking, 'Back off, back off, back off.'"
"And then the officer with the Taser asked the gentleman to put his hands behind his back and did so probably two or three times and reactivated the Taser another four or five times after that."