LOS ANGELES - Jack Cover, who invented the Taser stun gun now used by thousands of police agencies as a better way to subdue suspects, died Feb. 7. He was 88.

Cover, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia at Golden Coast Senior Living in Mission Viejo, according to a statement from Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that now makes the stun gun.

Rick Smith, Taser International's chief executive, called Cover "one of the most influential inventors of modern times."

Cover, a one-time NASA scientist, began developing the Taser as a nonlethal weapon to combat the hijackings and riots that were happening in the 1960s, Smith said.

He derived its name from a fictional weapon in a favorite childhood book, "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle," one of a series of adventure stories by Victor Appleton.

"What an amazing thought, stunning people with blue balls of electricity," Cover told The Washington Post in 1976, recalling his fascination with the book. He added that an "A" was added to the name of his invention because "we got tired of answering the phone `TSER' for Tom Swift's Electric Rifle."