Canadian deaths linked to taser use

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

Here is a list of 18 Canadian cases since 2003 in which people died after police use of Tasers:

July 22, 2008: An as yet unidentified 17-year-old died in hospital after being shot with a Taser. Winnipeg Police say the youth refused to comply with repeated requests by officers to put a knife down. The victim was believed to be involved in the theft of property from a vehicle.

June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, died in custody after Ontario Provincial Police, responding to a disturbance in the town of Norfolk, near Simcoe, shocked him with a Taser. Marreel's father said the man had a history of drug use and lost his job at a flower nursery two weeks prior.

Oct. 17, 2007: Quilem Registre, 39, died in a Montreal hospital after police used a Taser on him at a police station. Police say Registre became aggressive during questioning after he was stopped for a traffic violation.

Oct. 14, 2007: Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after police used a Taser and forcibly subdued him after he became agitated at Vancouver Airport, where he had arrived from Poland.

Aug. 30, 2006: Jason Doan, 28, died in Red Deer, Alta., after police used a Taser in responding to a complaint about a man seen damaging vehicles.

Dec. 24, 2005: Alessandro Fiacco, 33; witnesses said police used a Taser to subdue an agitated Fiacco who had been running into traffic in Edmonton.

July 15, 2005: Paul Saulnier, 42, died in Digby, N.S., after police tried to keep him from leaving the detachment by using pepper spray, batons and a Taser.

July 1, 2005: James Foldi, 39, died after police used a Taser while trying to arrest him following reports of numerous break-ins in the Beamsville, Ont., area.

June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, died in Surrey, B.C., after police used a Taser while responding to complaints about a domestic dispute.

May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, died after police tried to subdue him with a Taser outside a Moncton, N.B., bar.

Aug. 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, died in Kingston, Ont., hours after being shot with a Taser. The Ontario coroner said Truscott was killed by a drug overdose.

July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, died in hospital in Brampton, Ont., after he was shot with a Taser during a violent struggle with police. A pathologist found no proof the stun gun was to blame for his death, saying Knight died from restraint asphyxia and cocaine-related 'excited delirium'.

June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, died at a Vancouver hotel after being shot with a Taser by police, who said Bagnell was in the throes of a potentially lethal cocaine-induced psychosis at the time.

May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 33, died in London, Ont., after being pepper-sprayed, punched and shot several times with a Taser during a struggle with police. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit concluded Lamonday died from cocaine-induced 'excited delirium" and not from police action.

May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, died in Vancouver after he was forcibly subdued and hit with a Taser by police while reportedly high on crack cocaine.

Sept. 28, 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, died in Whitehorse, Yukon. RCMP reported Whitehouse fled on foot while attempting to swallow drugs. Officers used a Taser to subdue him. A short time later, he appeared to be having trouble breathing and was pronounced dead at hospital.

July 22, 2003: Clay Willey, 33, died in hospital in Prince George, B.C., 16 hours after police used a Taser on him at an RCMP detachment. Willey was arrested in the parking lot of a local mall after police received complaints about a man acting aggressively. An autopsy found he had potentially lethal amounts of cocaine in his system.

April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, died at the North Burnaby Inn in Burnaby, B.C., after pulling a knife and hammer on police. High on cocaine, he went into cardiac arrest after police shot him with a Taser.