The police decision to use a taser gun on a mentally disturbed man who later died of a heart attack “appeared to be within department guidelines,” a police spokesman said yesterday.

Assistant Chief Michael Collins said officers responded to a call about an emotionally disturbed person on 141st Avenue in the Rosedale section of Queens at about 5 p.m. on Sunday. Family members had told police that the EDP had been acting erratically and forcefully grabbed a child.

The officers tried to restrain Blondel Lassegue, 39, a former New York City schoolteacher, but he began punching several officers, Chief Collins said. Four officers were later treated for bruises and other small injuries, he said.

A supervisor who responded to the scene then made the decision to use a taser gun to subdue Lassegue. Paramedics on the scene checked his condition, but several minutes later he became “unresponsive,” Chief Collins said.

Paramedics rushed him to Franklin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 6:40 p.m. The Nassau County medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy yesterday, but a final determination will only be made after more tests, a spokeswoman, Diane Markunas, said.

The NYPD Patrol Guide says patrol supervisors or Emergency Service Unit officers “may utilize a taser electronic stun device or stun device to assist in restraining EDP’s, if necessary.” The guide says a taser can be used when an EDP is “evincing behavior that might result in physical harm to himself or others.”

Police said they had responded to four prior EDP incidents involving Lassegue over the last eight years.