Lawyer challenges officer's Taser testimony

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lawyer challenges officer's Taser testimony

July 15, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX — A lawyer is challenging the testimony of a Halifax police officer testifying at an inquiry into what happened to a man who died 30 hours after being Tasered.

Shannon Coombs, who was a special constable with Halifax Regional Police at the time, says she vividly recalls seeing one of her colleagues holding a cutting tool near Howard Hyde.

Coombs says her colleague was about to remove a string from Hyde’s shorts on Nov. 21, 2007, when he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his spouse.

She insists a blade on the tool was not drawn by the other officer, moments before Hyde — who suffered from schizophrenia — became agitated in the station and was then Tasererd repeatedly.

But Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer for the Hyde family, says Coombs stated in an interview with the RCMP after the incident that she could see very little, if anything, of what happened.

MacDonald also questioned her insistence that she saw a broken plastic restraint on the floor that another officer has said Hyde broke with his “tremendous strength.”

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taser-Related Deaths = 1043+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"
According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to a Reuters investigation, Shock Tactics - Part 1 - The Toll, published on August 22, 2017, more than 150 autopsy reports have cited tasers as the cause or contributor to deaths across the U.S. That number may be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding. See, for example, Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

NAVIGATING THIS SITE

What we believe:

CLICK HERE to see my April 2008 Submission to the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security

1) The "real world" safety implications of Tasers require urgent independent and unbiased study.

2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

Deaths in Canada - 43

01. Terry Hanna, 51 – Burnaby, BC - April 19, 2003 - RCMP - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Acute cocaine intoxication
02. Clayton Willey, 33 – Prince George, BC - July 22, 2003 - RCMP - X26 - "Official" cause of death: drug overdose
03. Clark Whitehouse, 34 – Whitehorse, YK - September 2003 - RCMP - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Acute cocaine poisoning, cardiac arrest
04. Ronald Perry, 28 – Edmonton, AB - March 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy due to cardiorespiratory arrest due to excited delirium with Marijuana as a contributory factor
05. Roman Andreichikov, 25 – Vancouver, BC - May 1, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to or as a consequence of acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis
06. Peter Lamonday, 33 – London, ON - May 13, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Cocaine induced "excited delirium"
07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.
08. Jerry Knight, 29 – Mississauga, ON - July 17, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: “restraint asphyxia” with cocaine-related excited delirium
09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns
10. Kevin Geldart, 34 – Moncton, NB - May 5, 2005 - RCMP - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium with contributing factors including repeated shocks with a taser and pepper spray
11. Gurmit Sundhu, 41 – Surrey, BC - June 30, 2005 - RCMP - tasered 8 times - "Official" cause of death: Acute cocaine intoxication due to atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and cardiac hypertrophy
12. James Foldi, 39 – Beamsville, ON - July 1, 2005 - Niagara Regional Police, X26 - tasered 12 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity leading to sudden cardiac death, in the setting of excited delirium
13. Paul Saulnier, 42 – Digby, NS - July 15, 2005 - RCMP - tasered 1 time with dart, multiple times with touch stun - "Official" cause of death: heart attack brought on by excited delirium, linked to his paranoid schizophrenia (Medical Examiner Dr. Matthew Bowes) (Ontario Chief Coroner Jim Cairns reviewed the case and "concluded that the taser played no role in Saulnier's death")
14. Alesandro Fiacco, 33 – Edmonton, AB - December 24, 2005 - tasered 3 times - "Official" cause of death: "acute cocaine toxicity," and "a complete lack of evidence" the Taser contributed to his death (Medical Examiner Dr. Graham Dowling)
15. Jason Doan, 28 – Red Deer, AB - August 30, 2006 - RCMP - tasered 3 times in 38 seconds - "Official" cause of death: undeterminable
16. James Best, 42 - Hamilton, ON - November 28 2006
17. James Barber, 25, Ottawa, ON - January 3, 2007 - Ottawa Police
18. Claudio Castagnetta, 32 - Quebec City, QC - September 20, 2007 - tasered 5 times - "Official" cause of death: accidental severe cerebral edema (Coroner Dr. Jean Brochu)
19. Robert Dziekanski, 40 - Vancouver, BC - October 14, 2007 - X26 - RCMP - tasered 5 times - "Official" cause of death: Cardiac arrest
20. Quilem Registre, 39 - Montreal, QC - October 17, 2007 - X26 - tasered 6 times - "Official" cause of death: Necrosis of the liver, small intenstine and colon with contributing factors of 60mg/100 ml blood alcohol level and non quantified level of metabolite cocaine
21. Howard Hyde, 45 - Halifax, NS - November 22, 2007 - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: "Excited delirium" due to paranoid schizophrenia, with contributing factors of Coronary artery disease, obesity and restraint
22. Robert Knipstrom, 36 - Chilliwack, BC - November 24, 2007 - RCMP - tasered at least 6 times - "Official" cause of death: acute ecstasy intoxication and excited delirium
23. Jeffrey Marreel, 36 - Norfolk, Ontario - June 23, 2008 - OPP - # of times tasered unknown - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine poisoning
24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks
25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"
26. Frank Frachette, 49 - Langley, BC - September 30, 2008 - RCMP - # of times tasered: "no comment" from RCMP
27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs
28. Gordon Walker Bowe, 30, Calgary, AB - November 2, 2008 - tasered 3 times - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium due to cocaine
29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"
30. Aron Firman, 27, Collingwood, ON - June 24, 2010 - OPP - Official cause of death: cardiac arrhythmia precipitated by electronic control device deployment in an agitated man
31. Jeff Oatway, 34 - Edmonton, AB - April 13, 2012
32. Alton Cuyugan, 33 - Vancouver, BC - November 13, 2012
33. Marc-Andre Fontaine, 27 - Leduc, Alberta - August 4, 2013 - RCMP
34. Simon Chung, 39 - Edmonton, AB - October 31, 2013 - Edmonton Police - ASIRT no comment on # of times tased, Witness says 3x
35. Donald Menard, 41 - Montreal, Quebec - November 11, 2013
36. Maurizio Angelo Facchin, 50 - Burnaby, BC, June 4, 2014 - RCMP - On June 5, 2014 Chief Civilian Director Richard Rosenthal of the IIO calls it a "death subsequent to the deployment of taser"
37. Kevin Seiji Mukuyama, 42 - Chilliwack, BC - February 11, 2015 - RCMP
38. Rodrigo Hector Gonzales, 43 - Toronto, Ontario - November 7, 2015
39. Marcel Moisan, 49 - Edmonton, Alberta - December 7, 2015
40. Nicolas Jeppesen, 29 - Terrace, British Columbia - August 19, 2016
41. Rui Nabico, 31, November 4, 2016, Toronto, Ontario
42. Matthew Fosseneuve, 34 - Winnipeg, MB - July 29, 2018
43. Clive Mensah, 30 - Toronto, ON - November 20, 2019

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009