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Canada orders review after Taser death
Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:29 PM EST
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada ordered a review into the use of Tasers on Thursday after graphic video footage emerged showing police using the stun guns to shoot an unarmed Polish immigrant who then collapsed and died.
The video -- broadcast repeatedly on Canadian and U.S. television networks -- showed Robert Dziekanski shrieking in agony after he was hit by 50,000-volt blasts at Vancouver International Airport a month ago.
"I've asked for a review relating to the use of Tasers ... this is a tragic and grievous incident. We want to find out answers that can prevent these things from happening in the future," Public Security Minister Stockwell Day told Parliament.
The video cast severe doubt on the official Royal Canadian Mounted Police account of the incident, which said officers fired Taser shots at Dziekanski after he became abusive.
The video, taken by a bystander at the airport, initially shows a sweating and upset Dziekanski throwing a small table at a window in the luggage retrieval section and shouting at airport staff. By the time a team of four police officers arrives, he has calmed down and is standing still.
Police then fired at least two shots from Taser stun guns at the 40-year-old man, who collapsed to the ground howling in pain. At least three policemen could then be seen kneeling on Dziekanski, who died shortly afterward.
Legislator Penny Priddy from the opposition New Democratic Party said "the screams of a dying man echo throughout the country" and said Canadians wanted answers before more lives were lost.
"Is it standard operating procedure for the RCMP to use Tasers when there is no obvious physical threat?" she asked Day in Parliament.
Poland's ambassador to Canada said the video had deeply shocked him and said Warsaw wanted to learn all it could about an investigation the Mounties have launched into the case.
"The reaction of the RCMP officers was unsuitable to the situation. What I've seen was that Mr. Dziekanski (was) a person who was agitated, frustrated, I think terrified, but not aggressive. He was not making a gesture that he intended to fight anybody," Piotr Ogrodzinski told Reuters.
"He didn't know what to do. In fact, he was in search (of) help. That is why it is a really very sad and deeply moving film to watch."
Dziekanski flew to Canada to live with his mother in the western Canadian city of Kamloops, British Columbia. She had told him to wait for her at the luggage belt. But this meant he never passed through the customs section to enter the main part of Vancouver's airport, where she was waiting.
The left-leaning New Democratic Party said it was unhappy the Mounties were investigating the conduct of their own members.
"There is a litany of cases in which serious errors have been made when the police investigate themselves," said spokesman Ian Capstick.
Earlier this year the Mounties in British Columbia were heavily criticized for their account of how a police officer shot and killed a young man who had been arrested in 2005 for holding an open can of beer at a sports game.
Dale Carr, an RCMP spokesman in Vancouver, said the officers involved in the Dziekanski case would testify under oath at a coroner's inquest expected some time next year.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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