Ontario death raises questions about stun guns

July 19, 2004
CTV News

An inquest has been called into the death of a man who died in Mississauga, Ont. after a confrontation with police.

The province's Special Investigations Unit will investigate whether a Taser stun gun was involved and may have led to the death. The chief coroner's office says an inquest is mandatory when someone dies in police custody.

Jerry Knight, a 29-year-old former boxer, died Saturday after a run-in with police at the White Knight Motel in Mississauga, west of Toronto. Police were called to the scene after receiving a report a man was throwing and breaking things in the motel's front office.

When police arrived, a violent confrontation broke out. SIU spokeswoman Rose Bliss says Knight was likely struck with a Taser.

Knight was transported by paramedics to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy was performed Monday but officials weren't able to identify a cause of death.

On Monday, human rights group Amnesty International Canada urged police across the country to stop using Tasers until an independent, public investigation could be done.

"We've campaigned as an organization for years to get the use of Tasers suspended until there is an independent and rigorous evaluation of their impact and medical effects," spokesman John Tackaberry told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal.

He said his group has linked Tasers to the deaths of two men in B.C. in 2003.

Taser guns are carried by many police forces across the country. They are designed to be a non-lethal way to subdue a suspect by discharging up to 50,000 volts of electricity.

Toronto police's Emergency Task Force has been using Taser guns for three-and-a-half years. They say there have been 240 deployments on record, and no problems.

"We find them very valuable," says Sgt. Roger Gibson. "They allow us to use less force to resolve issues. We can resolve most calls faster and there are no lasting effects."

There have been four deaths involving Tasers in Canada; this is the first in Ontario.

Taser International Inc., the maker of the stun gun device, says it is aware of Knight's death, and will be watching closely for the autopsy results.

On Sunday, several newspaper reports linked Taser guns to deaths.

An investigation by the New York Times found that 50 people in the U.S. had died since 2001 after being shocked with a Taser. At least six associated-Taser deaths were reported in June alone, the paper says.

It also took note of a Canadian study in 1989 that found Tasers induced heart attacks in pigs with pacemakers.

The Arizona Republic newspaper also published a report this weekend linking at least five deaths to Tasers.

Taser International rejected the report. It specifically took aim at a claim in the report that police in the field don't take the full five-second dose when training with the Taser.

It also points out that while there were nine deaths between May and June 2004 in incidents where Tasers were used, "there were at least 29 additional unexpected in-custody deaths during roughly this same time period where the Taser was not used."

"The more Taser weapons deployed, the more lives will be saved," the company says in a statement.