RCMP in New Brunswick are investigating the death of a psychiatric patient whom police shot with a Taser outside a Moncton bar.

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Police were called to the Right Spot bar in the city's downtown around 11 p.m. local time on Thursday.

(CP file photo)

When they arrived, police say they were confronted by Kevin Geldart, 34.

Geldart matched the description of a patient who had been reported missing from a local psychiatric ward earlier in the evening.

Police say the six-foot-six-inch, 300-pound man was being "combative and violent," so they used a Taser to control him.

The weapons can deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity, causing muscle tissue to contract and immobilize the victim.

The shock knocked the man unconscious.

Geldart was later pronounced dead at the Moncton Hospital.

RCMP Corporal Terry Lee Kennedy said police are still trying to determine exactly what happened at the bar.

He said they also want to know how Geldart managed to walk away from the psychiatric ward.

"It appears that he may have walked away after having a cigarette break," said Kennedy.

RCMP from Fredericton are handling the investigation, which involved officers from the Codiac detachment of the RCMP, based in the Moncton area.