Two moms whose sons died after being Tasered by police lobby against stun guns

November 22, 2010
John Cotter, The Canadian Press

EDMONTON - The mothers of two men who died after being Tasered by police say they are forming a national group that will work to ban the use of electronic stun guns.

Zofia Cisowski, mother of Robert Dziekanski, made the pledge Monday outside a fatality inquiry into the death of an Edmonton man who was zapped with police Tasers a year after her own son died in Vancouver at the hands of RCMP.

Cisowski said it was painful to sit beside Bev Grimolfson at the inquiry as she asked questions about her son Trevor's death.

"I just want to support Bev because my son was Tasered at Vancouver International Airport," Cisowski said as she stood beside Grimolfson outside court.

"I am very frustrated because it reminded me of my son's death, struggling on the floor with his life."

Grimolfson said she is grateful for Cisowski's help. Together, they say they hope to make police more accountable in such deaths.

"I feel that there are a lot of questions that need to be asked," Grimolfson said.

"I was not allowed any funding for a lawyer so I had to come and stick up for my son by myself. I intend to get to the bottom of this."

Trevor Grimolfson, 38, died after Edmonton police shot him with a Taser several times on Oct. 29, 2008. A government investigation determined that Grimolfson was so violently out of control as he smashed up a pawn shop that officers were justified in firing at least three Taser darts into him, jolting his chest with numbing electric shocks.

When he finally fell to the ground, police handcuffed him and placed a spit mask over his face. Another officer also zapped him in the neck with a hand-held Taser.

After a few minutes, Grimolfson lapsed into unconsciousness until paramedics arrived. The former resident of Selkirk, Man., was pronounced dead soon after arrival in hospital.

The medical examiner said Grimolfson suffered from a heart condition and was extremely high on potentially lethal doses of ketamine and ecstasy. Cause of death was listed as excited delirium, a controversial term that has been linked to people who have died after being zapped by stun guns.

Last year, Alberta government investigators announced that no police officers would face criminal charges in Grimolfson's death.

Dr. Graeme Dowling, Alberta's chief medical examiner, reiterated his findings Monday as he testified at the inquiry.

When it was Grimolfson's turn to ask questions, she barraged Dowling: "Was he was aware that torturers use electrical devices in dictatorships? Did he know that Tasers have been used to subdue women and children in other countries?"

Judge Fred Day ruled that some of her questions were beyond the scope of the inquiry, which cannot find blame but works to glean information to prevent future deaths.

But he gave her latitude as she questioned Dowling on the public health risks associated with police use of Tasers.

"I found no evidence in this case that it was the cause of death," he replied. "I see no evidence of that."

More than 25 people have died in Canada after being stunned by Tasers.

The U.S. company that makes the devices points out that they have never directly been proven to have caused a death in Canada.

Cisowski said she will continue attending the fatality inquiry this week to give moral support to Grimolfson. She knows firsthand that such fact-finding takes time. She is still waiting for British Columbia to decide whether the four Mounties involved in the death of her son will be charged.

"We will work together to make something better for mothers like Bev and me and other mothers," she said.

Mom seeks answers in Edmonton Taser death

November 21, 2010
Alexandra Zabjek, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON — The mother of a man who died after being Tasered by city police two years ago is worried that she won’t get any answers at a fatality inquiry into the incident because she can’t afford a lawyer to represent her.

Beverly Grimolfson, who is raising her son Trevor’s three children in Dauphin, Man., plans to attend the inquiry which is scheduled to begin Monday in Edmonton. Without a lawyer to speak on her behalf, she is determined to question witnesses herself.

It won’t be an easy process.

“There are far too many questions for me to have answered, for me not to have a lawyer there,” she said. “I feel the victim’s family should have representation in order for it to be a fair inquiry.”

Trevor Grimolfson died on Oct. 29, 2008, after a drug-fuelled rampage through a west-end pawnshop.

Police were called and confronted him in the shop, a 10-minute ordeal in which he was Tasered several times. After he was arrested, he went into medical distress and was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

His cause of death was listed as “excited delirium due to the consequences of multiple drug toxicity.”

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates any death that may have been caused by a police officer, last year ruled officers were justified in their actions. No criminal charges were laid.

However, a fatality inquiry was automatically called since Trevor Grimolfson died while in police custody. The inquiry is scheduled for five days, and the presiding judge must report on the circumstances, causes, and manner of the death. The judge may present recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths in the future.

A fatality inquiry is not a trial and the judge cannot assign blame for an incident. Family members of those who have died are automatically granted standing to speak and ask questions at an inquiry, but provincial legislation does not provide for their legal funding.

Beverly Grimolfson said she was denied Legal Aid in her home province of Manitoba, as well as in Alberta. She applied to Provincial Court Judge F.A. Day, who is presiding over the inquiry, to recommend she receive funding, but he declined to do so.

Day ruled there was no legal authority to mandate funding. He noted that if financial need was a sufficient basis to recommend public funding, then provincial legislation or Legal Aid would have made provisions for that.

Alberta Justice says it is not common for families to bring lawyers to a fatality inquiry.

Julie Siddons, a spokeswoman for the department, said next of kin can speak at an inquiry and bring lawyers if they want.

“It’s a factual inquiry, it’s not a trial, so legal representation is not required,” she said.

Grimolfson’s inquiry comes in the wake of the high-profile and lengthy Braidwood Inquiry in B.C, which examined the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski who died at the Vancouver International Airport in 2007 after he was Tasered multiple times by Mounties. Video of the incident was viewed widely and prompted debate about the use of Tasers by police in Canada.

In his lengthy report released in 2009, former judge Thomas Braidwood said police should continue to use Tasers but warned it is not “helpful” to blame deaths on “excited delirium,” since it avoids having to “examine the underlying medical condition or conditions that actually caused death, let alone examining whether use of the conducted energy weapon and/or subsequent measures to physically restrain the subject contributed to those causes of death.”

Alberta Justice says it expects Dr. Graeme Dowling, Alberta’s chief medical examiner, will discuss the relevance of Braidwood’s findings at the Grimolfson’s inquiry.

When writing in 2009, Braidwood found 25 people had died in Canada since 2003 after a conducted energy weapon was deployed against them.

Beverly Grimolfson said she knows her son was in bad shape when he encountered police two years ago, but insists he was not “a monster.” She said he was a loving father and a generous person.

She thinks it is important the circumstances of her son’s death are investigated completely. She thinks that can’t be done without investigating the use of Tasers by police forces in general.

“We can’t forget any one of (those deaths). Just because there is no video of the other 25, their cases are no less important.”

'Excited delirium' killed Tasered man

March 27, 2009
By Ben Gelinas, with files from Laura Drake
The Edmonton Journal

A crazed man brought down by a police Taser last October died from what the medical examiner calls excited delirium caused by drugs.

Trevor Grimolfson, 38, was hit twice by the Taser after he attacked a man who came into his Stony Plain Road tattoo parlour and then smashed up a nearby pawnshop. Witnesses said Grimolfson was combative, violent and couldn't be calmed. After he was hit with the Taser, police handcuffed him. He soon lost consciousness and was declared dead in hospital.

"The cause of death was excited delirium brought on by drugs he'd taken," Alberta Justice spokesman David Dear said.

No further details on the ruling were released.

A representative from the medical examiner's office could not be reached for comment.

Asked about excited delirium, Michael Webster, a police psychologist who gave testimony at the inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport, said that "it's a fantasy.

"Police and medical examiners have taken something that was initially descriptive and have made it into something prescriptive. And that's where the controversy comes from, because it's just not a diagnosis, nor is it a cause of death."

Webster said the vast majority of physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists do not recognize that excited delirium exists.

"I would challenge your medical examiner to show me excited delirium in that corpse."

It is Webster's opinion that the continuing diagnosis of excited delirium as a legitimate cause of death further drives a wedge between law enforcement and the majority of the medical community.

Alberta's chief medical examiner has been outspoken in his belief that excited delirium is a legitimate condition. Someone in the state could die without being touched or even when alone. It seems to have nothing to do with the method of restraint, Dr. Graeme Dowling told the Canadian National Committee for Police in November.

"They may die in spite of what we do."

Dowling said that it wouldn't be uncommon to need six to eight police officers to restrain someone in an excited delirium, as it is characterized by abnormal strength.

Following Grimolfson's death, the use of a Taser promptly became the public focus.

The medical examiner's ruling "once again shows that when these arrest-related deaths occur, jumping to conclusions is the wrong way to go," Taser International spokesman Steve Tuttle said. "We have seen this time and time again repeatedly, and it has sadly affected public opinion."

The Arizona company has been under intense public scrutiny in Canada since Dziekanski's death was captured on amateur video.

Tuttle said that incident ignited something that borders on hysteria in this country.

"We call it a crisis in Canada."

A fatality review board will determine whether a fatality inquiry will be recommended in Grimolfson's case.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team which looks into deaths involving police is still investigating.

Alberta Solicitor General spokesman Andy Weiler said no one from the response team will comment on the medical examiner's report until the investigation is complete.

Deaths may have been 'delirium,' not taser

It was only a matter of time, dear readers - I've been wondering when the good Dr. Dowling, proponent of "excited delirium", would weigh in. Keep in mind that "excited delirium" is recognized by NEITHER the Canadian Medical Association NOR the American Medical Association.

The manufacturer of the taser, TASER INTERNATIONAL, favours Dr. Dowling's opinions SO MUCH they even quote him on their website: Medical Examiner Says TASER Devices Not a Death Sentence

November 4, 2008
Ryan Cormier, The Edmonton Journal

The death of a patient in a bizarre rage, possibly a victim of what experts call "excited delirium," has nothing to do with police restraint or Tasers, said Alberta's Chief Medical Examiner.

Dr. Graeme Dowling told the Canadian National Committee for Police that patients in such frenzies could die without being touched or even when alone in an apartment.

"To the best of our knowledge right now, it has nothing to do with the method of restraint. They may die in spite of what we do," he said.

Although not an official diagnosis, excited delirium has been studied by experts. It is characterized by blind rages, paranoia, profuse sweating, disrobing and greatly increased strength.

"They also have a real propensity to break glass," Dowling said. "They don't like mirrors. I don't know if it's that they don't like to see themselves in a paranoid state."

Dowling said it wouldn't be uncommon to need six to eight police officers to restrain someone in that state.

Excited delirium is usually induced by stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine. In fatal cases, the patient died within seconds or minutes of being restrained.

That could be because extreme levels of adrenaline and potassium in the body drop at different levels, stop counteracting each other and cause death.

With excited delirium, little has been proven because of the danger of testing a subject in the midst of the state.

The condition is often discussed parallel to police use-of-force because officers are often the first to deal with such aggressive people. However, there is no proof that anything an officer does causes such deaths, Dowling said.

"These cases were first documented in 1849. There weren't Tasers in 1849. There was no pepper-spray in 1849. Yet, these patients died."

There are fewer than 20 cases each year in Canada that can be connected to the condition, Dowling said.

Last week, witnesses reported that Trevor Grimolfson, 38, was combative, violent and couldn't be reasoned with as he broke windows in two stores and began assaulting people on Stony Plain Road. Police deployed a Taser, subdued Grimolfson and cuffed him. He then lost consciousness and was declared dead in hospital.

On Saturday night, Calgary officers encountered Gordon Walker Bowe in the basement of a vacant home while investigating a break and enter. Bowe, 30, reportedly struggled with officers before he was subdued. He was struck by a Taser, but investigators don't yet know if the electrical shock was actually delivered.

Bowe quickly went into "medical distress" after he was subdued. He reached hospital in critical condition and died a day later.

Bowe reportedly shattered a basement window to gain access to the empty home.

Autopsy results for Grimolfson have not been released. Bowe's autopsy is scheduled for today.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which is independent of any police force, is investigating both deaths.

On Dec. 24, 2005, Alessandro Fiacco attracted police while thrashing and screaming on a McKernan neighbourhood street, saying bugs were crawling on his skin. Fiacco was struck three times with a Taser and died on the way to hospital. A fatality inquiry listed Fiacco's cause of death as "acute cocaine toxicity," and said there was "a complete lack of evidence" the Taser contributed to his death.

Edmonton police Const. Ray Wood, of the Police and Crisis Team, said people who may be in excited delirium should be approached with care. "Their strength is just unbelievable," he said. "The power is tremendous, almost animal-like."

Shawn Miller, a registered psychiatric nurse who works with police, said a patient in delirium is almost never able to communicate properly. "Unfortunately, it's going to come down to restraint or use of force," he said. "Diagnosing is not going to be done by two officers on a street corner being yelled at by a guy with a piece of glass."

No need to revisit stun-gun protocol: province

November 4, 2008
Renata D'Aliesio, Calgary Herald; with files from Canwest News Service

Alberta's top police officer says he is confident the province has some of the strictest guidelines in Canada guarding how and when Tasers are used on the public.

Solicitor General Fred Lindsay said Monday he doesn't see any need to revisit provincial Taser guidelines, introduced last December, unless independent investigations into two deaths in less than a week determine otherwise.

On Sunday, 30-year-old Gordon Walker Bowe died in a hospital after an altercation with Calgary police the day before. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating, and it is still unclear whether the police stun gun actually struck Bowe.

His death comes four days after a man died in Edmonton after being stunned by police in that city. An investigation is underway to determine whether the Taser contributed to Trevor Grimolfson's death.

Lindsay called the two deaths "disturbing." "It's unfortunate that two people have died when they were being apprehended by police," he said at the legislature Monday. "We'll see what evidence comes forward in the investigation and go forward from there."

However, Liberal justice critic Kent Hehr is urging the province to act now instead of waiting. He thinks the Alberta government should undertake a comprehensive Taser review in light of these deaths. Hehr contends guidelines adopted by municipal police forces in Alberta aren't as stringent as those recommended in a report from the RCMP's watchdog.

In June, RCMP public complaints commission chairman Paul Kennedy said Mounties should limit their use of Tasers to "combative" suspects and take the weapons out of the hands of inexperienced officers.

"This is becoming a public safety concern," said Hehr, a Calgary MLA. "I realize they're an effective way for police to do policing, but we have to make sure the public is safe. I'd like to see us do our due diligence on this and it doesn't appear that we have so far."

In question period, Hehr pressed Lindsay to commit to holding a public inquiry on police Taser use, but the solicitor general didn't specifically answer the plea.

Lindsay noted a fatality inquiry will likely follow the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigations.

"I'm comfortable with the guidelines we have and very comfortable that the policemen we have on our street, day in and day out, do a great job and use it appropriately," Lindsay told reporters.

Meanwhile, Alberta's chief medical examiner said Monday the death of a patient in a bizarre rage, possibly a victim of what experts call "excited delirium," has nothing to do with police restraint or Tasers. Dr. Graeme Dowling told the Canadian National Committee for Police that patients in such frenzies could die without being touched or even when alone in an apartment. "To the best of our knowledge right now, it has nothing to do with the method of restraint.

7th Annual "Psychiatrists in Blue" Conference

November 3, 2008
By ALYSSA NOEL, SUN MEDIA

To zap or not to zap?

It's one of the questions being posed as police and mental health experts from across the country meet over the next two days at a mental-health conference in Edmonton.

The issue of when to use stun guns resurfaced following the recent death of a 38-year-old city man who was zapped twice by police.

While an independent body is still investigating that case, in other similar circumstances a rare physical and mental state called excited delirium, which causes the sufferer to be agitated and possess super human strength, has been to blame for deaths.

'BAD NEWS'

"What the public hears about are the bad news stories," said Dr. Dorothy Cotton, an Ontario psychologist and one of the organizers of the conference.

"I don't want to play down the level of tragedy here ... (but) police are very well trained ... I think it'd be safe to say in situations involving Tasers and excited delirium, it's just not known. We're just not there yet."

Trevor Grimolfson, the 38-year-old owner of Big Daddy's tattoo shop, died last Wednesday after police jolted him in an attempt to end a violent rampage near 153 Street and Stony Plain Road.

Meanwhile, Cotton said police are well-trained and well-informed when it comes to dealing with those who have mental-health issues. Judging by statistics, officers have gained a lot of experience over the years, she said.

Cotton says around 6% to 10% of the calls police receive involve people with mental-health problems.

"Probably the most important thing is for a police officer to recognize a person may be mentally ill and therefore may not be able to respond the way they would expect someone to. Normally, if you don't do something a police officer asks, they don't look on that favourably," she said.

TRAINED TO RECOGNIZE

But for the past decade, police have been trained on how to recognize and deal with such issues, she said.

The annual conference, held in different cities each year, is a way to gather and forward that effort, she added.

"The most exciting thing about this is it's one of the good news stories about policing," she said.

The conference runs through tomorrow at the Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel.

This conference is hosted by the Canadian National Committee for Police/Mental Health Liaison, a subcommittee of The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (whose annual conference is sponsored BIG-TIME by Taser International). On the CACP website, the conference is referred to as the "7th Annual Conference on Police/Mental Health Systems Liaison." The conference Agenda refers to the conference as the "7th Annual Psychiatrists in Blue Conference."

Dr. Graeme Dowling from the medical examiner's office in Edmonton, who has argued there's "no definitive case where Tasers have actually killed anybody," will facilitate the session on "Excited Delirium."

What's in it for the coroners?

Earlier today, I learned that, on Monday, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, currently reviewing the use of tasers in Canada, will hear from two Canadian coroners: namely, Graeme Dowling (Chief Medical Examiner for Alberta) and Andrew McCallum (Regional Supervising Coroner for Eastern Ontario).

See the Notice of Meeting

I do not know Andrew McCallum's position on tasers but I *do* know that he works for the same Ontario government Ministry that employed Dr. James (Jim) Cairns, - the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. The same Ministry that allowed tasers into Ontario, the same Ministry that found tasers had nothing to do with the deaths of Peter Lamonday, Samuel Truscott and James Foldi and which has yet to hold an inquest into the death of Jerry Knight who died FOUR years ago, the same Ministry that, according to the Globe and Mail, allowed its deputy chief coroner, Jim Cairns, to accept payment from Taser International for lecturing at their conferences. And on and on it goes. OK, I think we can guess what Andrew McCallum's stance will be.

Here's what the taser manufacturer had to say about Graeme Dowling on its website:

Medical Examiner Says TASER Devices Not a Death Sentence

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices released the following News Alert:

According to news reports from Alberta's Edmonton Sun in Canada, a local medical examiner has stated that misconceptions and misinformation about police TASER devices are causing misguided speculation in excited delirium deaths. Excited delirium is a condition that causes victims to display extremely aggressive behavior and "superhuman" strength and often requires several people to control the affected individual. Most often excited delirium victims stop breathing and do not respond to resuscitation attempts.

Dr. Graeme Dowling of Edmonton's medical examiner's office stated that there are actually "no definitive cases where TASERs have actually killed anybody." Dowling also noted that because the electricity from a TASER device flows across the skin surface, as opposed to through internal organs, there is no effect on the heart. "The frustrating thing for us is these deaths occur and the immediate speculation is TASER," says Dowling.

To date, TASER systems have not been named in any in-custody death situation in Edmonton.

-- SNIPPED --

Later today, a fellow blogger left a comment on "340 dead after taser use." I didn't want it to be missed, so here it is in its entirety:

Okay, let's lay it out:

Taser has cultivated close relationships with many leading coroners and medical examiners. They sponsor almost-'captive' organizations that sponsor nice seminars in pleasant locations. They pay for coroners to attend. They're deeply involved in the coroner and ME business. Skeptics might find this cozy Taser+Coroners relationship very suspicious.

Would you eat ice cream from an ice cream company that was this friendly with coroners and medical examiners? I certainly wouldn't.

If you ask many coroners, they'd tell you flat out that tasers are perfectly safe (because Taser told them so, and Taser wouldn't lie, would they?). Some skeptics might use the word brainwashed. Taser has had quite the head start in this.

Many of these coroners have been told that the various tasers emit only about 2 mA ("average"), but I'll bet most don't realize that the M26 emits 162 mA RMS and the X26 emits 151 mA RMS. The industry standard method to measure electrical waveforms is RMS (like your household power is 120 volts RMS).

I'll put it out again because it's important:

Taser M26 is 162 mA RMS
Taser X26 is 151 mA RMS

These RMS values, which appeared on earlier revisions of their specification sheets, have been curiously expunged from the later revisions.

Why?

Taser sues coroners that have found that the taser was a contributing factor. They're in court this week in fact.

There are other coroners that list everything (EVERYTHING!) except (!) the taser. Amazing!!! Why? Well, see above. And see below too.

The taser leaves zero internal footprints. There is no physical evidence. This 'proof issue' is a huge problem for opponents of Taser. It's as if Taser has invented a magic electric rifle that can take down victims (and possibly stop their heart) without leaving a sign.

But to claim that the taser is perfectly safe in the face of such numbers is an insane position.

If Taser was honest, they would provide a numerical risk value. The number will not be zero. I've never seen such a number. Even Boeing has to submit a thick report showing their estimated risk for the wings falling off (etc.).

Look for my post "Looking for 'proof' in all the wrong places" on my blog www.Excited-Delirium.com for further discussion on this issue.

Perhaps the standard for proof should be that someone died and there were all those little Taser serial number tags found scattered around at the scene. At least it is strong evidence that the taser is a possible contributing factor to the death.

It's naive to exclude the taser as a possible contributing factor because Taser told them so.

And when you see the ethical missteps associated with Taser, you wouldn't trust them as far as you could throw them.

Taser use scrutinized

January 26, 2008
DANIEL MACISAAC, Edmonton Sun

A provincial court judge wants to see more study of the condition "excited delirium" to improve the use of police Tasers and prevent the deaths of people who are zapped. "People suffering from this condition need medical help; they need to be restrained to get that help," wrote Judge Fern LeReverend in a report on the 2004 death of Ronald Perry. "Death frequently ensues once they are restrained. This condition, although rare, arises from several different causes, including illicit drug use."

SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH

Perry, a 25-year-old Edmonton man with a history of illicit drug use, was said to have possessed superhuman strength as he struggled against as many as seven city cops trying to subdue him in March 2004, before he was hit multiple times with a stun gun, quit breathing, suffered brain damage and was taken off life support several days later.

LeReverend's report gives details of the erratic, psychotic and violent behaviour that led to Perry's arrest - including jumping off a balcony and physically attacking friends as well as cars at the intersection of 129 Avenue and 64 Street. LeReverend writes that excited delirium is a medical condition involving such "an altered level of consciousness affecting thinking and perception." And to prevent similar deaths in the future, the judge is recommending more information on the causes and treatment of excited delirium be obtained and shared - and that medical staff be funded to learn more about it.

"I recommend that when further information is obtained, it be provided to police, ambulance and emergency medical personnel so they can create suitable procedures to more successfully deal with people in this condition," he concludes.

While many experts, including Dr. Graeme Dowling from the medical examiner's office in Edmonton, have argued there's "no definitive case where Tasers have actually killed anybody," several highly publicized deaths following Taser use have had critics targeting the law-enforcement tool.