Guns kill, tasers are supposed to stun. When they kill, there is a problem. Huge bolts of electricity effect different people differently. Its why I am staying out of the stock.
Police baffled by Taser death at Vancouver airport
Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:54am EDT
OTTAWA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Canadian police are still trying to work out why an agitated passenger died at Vancouver airport after he was hit by two blasts from a Taser stun gun, a spokesman said on Monday.
The unidentified foreign man, who arrived on an international flight on Sunday, showed signs of distress in the customs area. He started shouting in an eastern European language, pounded on windows, threw chairs and shoved computer equipment on the floor.
Police attempted to restrain the passenger and blasted him twice with a Taser when he refused to calm down. He died shortly after being handcuffed.
"We don't have the ... cause (of death)," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre told CBC television from Vancouver, British Columbia.
"Based on our review of the B.C. coroner's service and past cases where individuals have died following the use of a Taser, what we've seen is they are usually due to a pre-existing medical condition or the use or abuse of legal or illegal drugs. The Tasers have not contributed to the actual death."
Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward, who has studied incidents involving Tasers, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that 16 Canadians had died in the last five years after being hit by the 50,000-volt electrical charge the weapon generates.
Lemaitre defended the use of Tasers, saying the number of people in the customs area ruled out the use of pepper spray. Using metal truncheons was also out of the question because that could have been interpreted as an excessive use of force.
He said police hoped to be able to identify the man by the end of Monday.
Tasers are manufactured by Taser International Inc (TASR.O: Quote, Profile, Research), based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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