Drummond was tasered several times: witness

Come on people - if the RCMP officer says that William Drummond was only tasered once, then it *must* be true! If the RCMP "file itself" has no indication that there was more than one Taser being used, then it *must* be true! RCMP files are never wrong, are they??

Note to William Drummond: Be VERY skeptical of the RCMP's statement that the "electronic record" of the device shows that the taser was deployed only once that day. It has been proven time and again (my brother's case is a classic example) that the electronic record or data download feature cannot be relied upon for any degree of accuracy.

RCMP played that card early in the Dziekanski incident as well (before witnesses and a video came forward with a much different story).

July 30, 2008
ROBYN YOUNG, METRO HALIFAX

William Drummond was allegedly hit with a Taser several more times by a plain-clothes police officer after being tasered once by an RCMP officer Jun. 22.

Rev. Michael Alden Fells of Digby told reporters outside the Halifax Regional Police station yesterday that a witness to the Jun. 22 altercation reported the additional Tasering. “He actually witnessed one of the officers Taser William Drummond three or four times,” Fells said. “He asked him to stop because he thought he was going to kill him.”

Fells says the witness, a young white man named Chad Tid, was reluctant to come forward with this information, but finally filed a statement with Digby RCMP on Monday night. Tid was not at home yesterday but a family member said “he made his statement to police” and he’s not going to answer any more questions about what he saw that night.

Drummond, who was at the protest yesterday said he doesn’t know if he was hit with more than one Taser, but he knows he was shocked three or four times. “I felt two more zaps and then when I was on the ground I felt another one,” he said. Police have confirmed Drummond was Tasered once by an RCMP officer.

Sgt. Mark Gallagher with the RCMP said Drummond was only struck once with a Taser. “The file itself does not have any indications that there was more than one Taser that was being used,” Gallagher said.

Protesters complain about police conduct in fight outside Nova Scotia bar

July 29, 2008
The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — Two young Nova Scotia men filed complaints of police brutality Tuesday following allegations that off-duty officers uttered a racial slur, assaulted them and zapped one with a stun gun multiple times.

The men joined their families and about 50 people carrying placards outside the front entrance of the Halifax police headquarters before lodging their complaints over an incident last month in Digby.

Nathaniel Fells, 19, and William Drummond, 20, have said that one of a group of off-duty officers used the racial slur and then took a swing at Drummond as they walked down a street in the small community on June 22.

Fells, holding a poster that read 'Fair Treatment and Equality,' said he hopes the formal complaint will lead to a thorough investigation of the officers and a ban on the use of Tasers. "It's about abuse and racism coming to a stop," he said, surrounded by supporters under sunny skies. "If they're enforcing the law and they've got a badge on that's what they're there to do. They're not there to keep black people off the streets."

The group said it was also filing complaints with the provincial and federal human rights commissions about how three on-duty RCMP officers responded to the incident.

Fells said he and Drummond were taunted into fighting by five or six off-duty police officers who emerged from a van and pursued them down the street outside a bar. The men allege that RCMP paid little attention to the off-duty officers who were still threatening them after Drummond says he had been hit by a Taser about four times.

An RCMP criminal investigation is underway into the late-night incident, and internal probes have been launched by several municipal police forces into the behaviour of the off-duty officers from Halifax and New Glasgow.

Halifax Const. David Li said the formal complaints were made Tuesday afternoon when the two young men made statements to police about what happened that night. Li said the statements will be used by the force as it conducts an internal investigation into possible officer misconduct.

Rev. Michael Alden Fells, Nathaniel's father, said the officers should be charged for what he alleges is a case of clear, unprovoked police aggression. "They were intoxicated, used racial slurs and physically assaulted our youth," he said. "We want to send a very clear message that those who enforce the law are not above the law."

The young men also say that when the Mounties arrived to investigate, the off-duty officers were left alone, even though some of them were chasing Fells. Rev. Fells has viewed a video of the incident and says it shows the on-duty officers standing close to Drummond when he is on the ground. He also said the officer who Tasered Drummond is black, while another off-duty officer zapped him several times.

RCMP Sgt. Mark Gallagher denied the allegation that an off-duty officer used a Taser, saying the electronic record of the device that was used shows it was deployed only once that day.

"We feel confident that the only person who would have used a Taser would have been the on-duty member that was trying to gain control of Drummond," he said.

"It was used once."

Digby (Nova Scotia) protesters take aim at cops' 'racial profiling'

July 14, 2008
By BRIAN MEDEL, Nova Scotia News

DIGBY — Placard-carrying protesters sang civil rights songs during their five-minute march from Bethel Temple to Digby's RCMP detachment Monday where Rev. Michael Alden Fells stressed what he's said many times in the past week.

“We will no longer sit idly by and ignore injustices.” He said black youth across the province but particularly in Digby have been treated unfairly by police. “We've experienced racial profiling ... from the RCMP,” he said. “It becomes alarming when police can be in civilian clothing; when they can use the most degrading of racial slurs to bring humiliation and embarrassment to our youth. It's an alarming thing when the RCMP can come to the aid of the perpetrators and not the aid of the victims.”

William Drummond, 20, said someone in a parked van, now known to be owned by Halifax Regional Police, shouted out an offensive name as he and a friend, Nathaniel Fells, walked past during the early hours of June 22. A side door slid open and some men jumped out of the vehicle. One of them threw a punch, Mr. Drummond said. The man missed and Mr. Drummond punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Halifax Regional Police have confirmed that one of their off-duty members was hurt in Digby and had to be taken to the hospital during the early hours of June 22.

Mr. Drummond has not been charged with any offence.

Mr. Drummond said he was backing away from the group of angry, off-duty cops when he was jolted by Digby Mounties with a Taser.

RCMP are probing the incident.

Mr. Fells has asked for an independent investigation.

RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin said RCMP major crime officers who have nothing to do with the Digby detachment are conducting the probe. That's what the RCMP consider an independent probe, he said.

Widow of Paul Saulnier files suit against RCMP

November 30, 2007
The Canadian Press

DIGBY, N.S. — A widow who is suing the RCMP for negligence says an officer shot her husband in the back with a Taser before he died during an altercation in 2005.
Helen Saulnier alleges in her civil suit in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that her late husband, Paul Saulnier, was Tasered outside the Digby RCMP detachment while he was arguing with another officer. She is suing the RCMP and three specific officers.

Saulnier, 42, of Waldeck, N.S., died July 15, 2005. He had been taken to the police station for questioning and was told he would be fingerprinted, the statement of claim alleges. It does not say he was ever under arrest. Some information in the statement of claim came from the provincial medical examiner’s report, said Saulnier’s lawyer, Jamie MacGillivray. ‘‘It was based on the RCMP’s own version of what happened,’’ he said.

When an agitated Saulnier decided to leave the police station through a back door, two Mounties followed him outside and ordered him back inside, the statement of claim alleges. One officer went back inside to grab a Taser, then returned and fired the darts into Saulnier’s back. An RCMP spokesman said shortly after Saulnier’s death that they had been planning to charge him with criminal harassment. The spokesman admitted that officers used pepper spray, batons, and a Taser to subdue him.

Saulnier fell to the ground and both officers jumped on him, the statement of claim says. A third officer came outside to help. Nova Scotia’s chief medical examiner found that Saulnier died of cardiac arrest due to excited delirium caused by paranoid schizophrenia, MacGillivray said. On Thursday, the RCMP said they would not comment on the lawsuit. The allegations have not been proven in court.

Widow of Paul Saulnier to sue RCMP

October 20, 2007
BRIAN MEDEL, The Chronicle Herald

DIGBY— The wife of a man who died outside the Digby RCMP detachment in 2005 after he was Tasered has hired a lawyer to sue the RCMP. Paul Sheldon Saulnier, 42, of Waldec died July 15, 2005. Officers had used pepper spray and their batons as well as a Taser to keep Mr. Saulnier from leaving the police station. He had apparently dropped in to talk, but it’s not clear why.

His wife, Helen, has retained lawyer Jamie MacGillivray. "We intend to claim against the RCMP for negligence in the use of the Taser," Mr. MacGillivray said. The lawsuit is still being prepared, he said Friday. He said the suit will not allege the police used excessive force. "But we are saying they didn’t use the Taser appropriately," Mr. MacGillivray said. "With the use of a powerful weapon like the Taser comes responsibility," he said.

The lawyer said two settings, or modes, are available for use on a Taser. One mode fires probes at a target to immobilize the person. The Digby RCMP officers used their Taser in what’s known as the drive stun mode, said Mr. MacGillivray. He said the medical examiner’s report said officers kept the Taser in drive stun mode.

Nova Scotia’s chief medical examiner found that Mr. Saulnier died of cardiac arrest due to excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia. The term excited delirium is controversial, Mr. MacGillivray said. "We intend to claim . . . negligence . . . using drive stun mode, where the Taser is applied directly to the skin," said Mr. MacGillivray. A Taser used in this fashion inflicts pain but does not immobilize, he said. And people in a state of excited delirium cannot be immobilized by pain, he said. "They repeatedly used the Taser in drive stun mode and attempted to use a hog-tie restraint," Mr. MacGillivray said of the three Digby RCMP officers involved in the incident.

Mr. MacGillivray also filed suit recently on behalf of Ms. Saulnier against the Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. The insurance company has denied a claim for payment of life insurance on the grounds that Mr. Saulnier died not from accident but from illness: paranoid schizophrenia, said Mr. MacGillivray. He said the claim was also denied because the insurance company said Mr. Saulnier was committing a criminal offence at the time of his death.

An RCMP spokesman said shortly after Mr. Saulnier’s death that police had been planning to charge the man with criminal harassment but charges had not yet been finalized. The insurance company’s position has only a thin veneer of legitimacy, argues Mr. MacGillivray. He said Mr. Saulnier was not committing a crime and was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of his acts. "We are very confident the courts will find Mrs. Saulnier is entitled to this benefit," said Mr. MacGillivray.

Tasered man died of heart attack: RCMP

September 21, 2006
CBC News

The RCMP say a Taser is not to blame for the death of a man who struggled with three officers in Digby last year.

Paul Saulnier, 42, died outside the RCMP detachment in Digby on July 15, 2005, after officers used a stun gun to immobilize him.

On Thursday, Nova Scotia's chief medical examiner said Saulnier died of a heart attack brought on by excited delirium, linked to his paranoid schizophrenia.

"It's a disease that's characterized by sudden onset of very violent and aggressive behaviour, confused thinking, superhuman strength," Dr. Matthew Bowes told CBC News.

Bowes said excited delirium usually affects two groups: chronic cocaine addicts and people with pre-existing disorders.

RCMP Sgt. Frank Skidmore said the deputy chief medical examiner for Ontario reviewed the case and concluded that the Taser played no role in Saulnier's death.

Wife filed complaint

Saulnier ended up in police custody after his wife filed a harassment complaint.

Helen Saulnier said she did so in an attempt to get him psychiatric treatment.

Saulnier walked into the RCMP detachment. When officers told him he was being arrested and charged, he fled the building.

Three officers tried to bring him down in the parking lot by using pepper spray and a baton. When that didn't work, they used a Taser, which delivers a jolt of electricity.

A few minutes later, Saulnier stopped moving. Paramedics arrived, but Saulnier died at the scene.

An investigation headed by Halifax Regional Police found the three officers were justified in using force, Skidmore said.

He said Saulnier's family has met with Bowes to discuss the report.