CHICAGO (AP) -- Chicago's Police Department is investigating an officer's use of a Taser on an 82-year-old woman who police say was swinging a hammer when they arrived.

Lillian Fletcher was rushed to the hospital after being jolted by the Taser last week, but has since been released, police said today.

Workers with the city's Department on Aging were making what is called a "well being check" at Fletcher's home on the city's southwest side the afternoon of Oct. 29, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

"The woman was seen at the window with a hammer in her hand, swinging it back and forth," Bond said.

The social workers called police. A landlord opened the door with a key and when the officers stepped inside, the woman was swinging the hammer, Bond said.

Not knowing if Fletcher was going to hurt herself, the officers tried to subdue her.

That, Bond said, is when a sergeant discharged a Taser, which struck Fletcher. Bond said the department is investigating whether the sergeant followed proper police procedures.

On Tuesday, Fletcher said officers had pushed their way into her home. "They shocked me," she said.

Fletcher's granddaughter told the Chicago Sun-Times that Fletcher suffers from schizophrenia and dementia. On the phone Tuesday, Fletcher at times sounded confused.

"She can be belligerent," Traci Taylor told the newspaper, adding that her grandmother is 5-foot-1 inches tall and weighs no more than 160 pounds.

"I just don't think they should be Tasing 82-year-old women," Taylor said. "That's ridiculous."

Tasers use compressed nitrogen to fire two barbed darts that can penetrate clothing to deliver a 50,000-volt shock to immobilize people.

Touted by law enforcement officials as less lethal than other ways of subduing combative people in high-risk situations, the weapons have come under fire around the country after they were blamed for several deaths.

In 2005, then-Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline temporarily suspended the distribution of stun guns following the deaths of two people after police shot them with Tasers.

Today, about 150 field training officers are set to be issued new Tasers and about 200 sergeants have had the weapons for about five years, Bond said.

The human rights group Amnesty International USA has voiced concerns that police departments are starting to use Tasers more routinely rather than in cases of serious danger.

Taser use by police drew national attention recently when police stunned and arrested a University of Florida student after his fervent, videotaped outburst at an event with Sen. John Kerry in September.