Cause of Vancouver airport death still a mystery

October 16, 2007
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — B.C.'s Coroner Service says it can't pinpoint a cause of death for the man who died minutes after being jolted with electricity from a RCMP Taser.

Police say 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski was immigrating to Canada from Poland and was to live with his family in B.C.

Assistant-deputy chief coroner Jeff Dolan says there was no trauma, disease or any other obvious cause of death for Mr. Dziekanski.

He says they'll wait to see if toxicology or microscopic examination can determine why he died.

Dr. Christine Hall, who has had input on several reports involving police use of Tasers and other restraints, says these types of death happened long before stun guns were used.

She says the common denominator in the deaths isn't the police restraint method used, but that people arrested are in a horribly agitated state.