Man too much to handle, taser inquest told

November 30, 2005
PETTI FONG, Globe and Mail

Vancouver — Roman Andreichikov was so strong and unwilling to comply with police commands that he bucked off a 175-pound police officer with his legs while two others held down his upper body, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday.

When police responded to a 911 call that Mr. Andreichikov was suicidal, the fitness trainer looked so massive and imposing that within seconds of seeing him sitting on a couch, Vancouver police Constable Dave Hall said he decided to draw his taser from its holster.

Constable Hall and his partner Marc Bouchey entered the Granville Street apartment when Mr. Andreichikov, 25, was upset and on Day 5 of a cocaine binge. A friend had called to say the fitness trainer had attempted to commit suicide twice.

On the witness stand Tuesday at the inquest into Mr. Andreichikov's death on May 1, 2004, Constable Hall said he tried to control Mr. Andreichikov's legs while two other officers who arrived moments later attempted to control his upper body.

But Constable Hall, who is 5'11 inches and 175 pounds, said Mr. Andreichikov easily lifted the officer off him with his legs and threw him about two feet.

The five-person jury is hearing evidence in the inquest about the circumstances that led Constable Hall to use his taser.

Mr. Andreichikov stopped breathing and died within moments of being hit with two electrical shocks.

Constable Hall said after he was thrown off and then showed Constable Bouchey a better technique to control the man's lower body, the other police officer still had trouble.

At 220 pounds and 6'3 inches, Constable Bouchey was larger than Mr. Andreichikov, who Constable Hall said he at first believed was about the same weight as his partner at 220 pounds, but six inches shorter.

Autopsy results showed Mr. Andreichikov was 5'6 inches and 160 pounds.

But Constable Hall said that when he and his partner first entered the apartment and saw Mr. Andreichikov, he didn't have time to gauge the man's height and weight adequately. He was more concerned, he told the jury, about the man's agitated state.

“I could see how hard he was flexing his body. He wasn't sitting still. He was shaking and vibrating,” said Constable Hall. “With the clenching of the jaw, the fast breathing, the sounds. It was hard to describe. It was so primal.”

The officer said based on his experience, he believed the man was in a drug-induced psychosis.

Constable Hall said he once saw a 300-pound police officer, one of the biggest guys on the police force, lose a physical encounter with a 130-pound teenager in a similar agitated state. It took six police officers to control the skinny youth.

In his day-long testimony, Constable Hall, who had received his taser 10 days before the May 1 incident and was testing it in the field, said he tried to calm Mr. Andreichikov. He said he feared that the man was going to run for the balcony and try to leap off again.

Rahim Hadani said he visited Mr. Andreichikov that day and got caught in the middle of a fight he was having with his girlfriend. Mr. Hadani convinced the girlfriend to leave and tried to calm his friend down, but twice, Mr. Hadani said he had to plead with his friend to come back inside after he threatened to jump from the balcony.

In his testimony earlier, Mr. Hadani said that as three officers were on Mr. Andreichikov and pressed his face on the carpet, his friend said he couldn't breathe. But an officer responded that if he was mumbling, he was breathing.

Constable Hall testified that when an officer alerted him that Mr. Andreichikov had stopped breathing, he tried to clear the man's airways. He said he never heard Mr. Andreichikov complain about not being able to breathe.

In fact, Constable Hall said the man was incoherent during the encounter. Constable Hall fired two shots of 50,000 volts each at Mr. Andreichikov.

Jurors have not heard yet what caused Mr. Andreichikov's death. The Vancouver police has faced criticism over its use of tasers in subduing individuals by families of victims and some community rights groups.

Just one month after Mr. Andreichikov's death, another man, Robert Bagnell died after he was tasered.