EDITORIAL: New Brunswick should test every taser gun

December 12, 2008
Editorial, Times Transcript

There should be no waffling on the question of whether to test tasers now in use by police forces across New Brunswick.

The stun-gun weapons have become increasingly controversial due to the number of deaths reported in the last few years, including a Moncton man who was subdued with a taser at a downtown bar in 2005.

Independent tests suggest some of the guns -- perhaps those manufactured more than three years ago -- are discharging more electric current than the manufacturer's recommended guidelines. This is akin to a police department not being sure whether the bullets they are firing at a suspect are rubber bullets or the type that explode on impact.

If the degree of force these weapons discharge is not known -- or is inconsistently applied -- every police force using tasers in New Brunswick should have every one of the weapons tested by an independent lab.

Even if all of their tasers pass the discharge test, we urge police officers to use the weapons in only the most severe circumstances. The case of Robert Dziekanski of Poland, who was tasered and died at the Vancouver Airport in 2007, should have been a sobering wake-up call to police officers everywhere.

Even a well-calibrated taser is still a powerful instrument that should be reserved as a weapon of last resort for volatile circumstances.

Police have several other weapons and strategies at their disposal. We fear tasers are still used as a matter of course, instead of a means of protection for both officers and the public.

Is 'excited delirium' at the root of many Taser deaths?

January 26, 2008
Armina Ligaya, CBC News

When police arrived at the Right Spot bar in downtown Moncton on May 5, 2005, Kevin Geldart was acting strangely. The 34-year-old had a history of bipolar disorder and had somehow walked away from the psychiatric unit of a nearby hospital earlier that night. Police said Geldart was acting combative and violent, and seemed to possess superhuman strength. However, witnesses testified Geldart was talking to himself in a corner but wasn't aggressive to those around him, according to his sister, Karen.

Officers used pepper spray and a Taser, as many as four times, to try and subdue the six-foot-six, 300-pound man. Then four officers pinned Geldart down, tied his feet and cuffed his hands. It was then that the police noticed Geldart had stopped breathing. He was later pronounced dead at a Moncton Hospital.

Fast forward to Oct. 14, 2007. A similar scene, except this time the setting is at the other side of the country — Vancouver International Airport. Robert Dziekanski had just flown in from Poland and couldn’t speak a word of English. The 40-year-old came to start a new life in Canada with his mother and was waiting in the customs area for her to pick him up. By 1:00 a.m., he had been waiting more than eight hours. For reasons that are still unclear, he never saw her.

It was at that point that Dziekanski started acting confused and agitated and began throwing around computer equipment. RCMP were called to the scene. According to an eyewitness video, four officers approached Dziekanski, who stood calmly while talking to them. Dziekanski then walked away and stood by a wall. Seconds later, a loud crack is heard. Dziekanski is shocked by a Taser, wails and collapses to the ground. The officers kneel on top of him, pinning him down as he struggles. He died minutes later.

In both of these sudden deaths, what's the culprit?

A rare condition

Some psychologists say the cause is a rare condition called "excited delirium" and not the obvious common element — the use of a Taser. According to some psychologists, a person with excited delirium acts agitated, violent, sweats profusely and is unusually strong and insensitive to pain. Then, the victim's heart races and eventually stops beating.

A coroner’s inquest into Geldart’s death concluded he was suffering from excited delirium on the night he died. And while the B.C. coroner’s service has not yet determined what killed Dziekanski — an autopsy failed to reveal a clear cause — RCMP have speculated the 40-year-old was also suffering from excited delirium.

"This is not due to a Taser," says Deborah Mash, a neurology professor at the University of Miami who has been studying excited delirium for 20 years. "This is in the brain and they die because the mechanisms that control the heart and the lungs fail."

In recent years, the condition has been showing up in coroner’s reports around the world as a cause of death. Yet, this condition is the subject of fierce debate in psychiatric circles.

Dr. Ian Dawe, the director of psychiatric emergency services at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says excited delirium is not a recognized mental disorder. In fact, the term is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, a handbook for professional psychologists and psychiatrists. "The term 'excited delirium' has been co-opted over the course of popular culture, perhaps over the past 15 to 20 years, to refer to this group of people who experience agitation and violence," Dawe told CBC News.

Delirium on its own, however, is a well known disorder, which is marked by confusion and agitation and can be associated with violence. It's usually triggered by another factor such as drugs or a predisposed medical illness, says Dawe.

He's not sure where the prefix "excited" comes from. And in his experience, he says it is uncommon to see patients with delirium suddenly die. "It is rare. Certainly we don’t see it happen in hospitals per se because of the way that we are approaching things."

First reported in the 1800s

According to Dr. Mash, however, individuals with excited delirium symptoms were first reported in the 1800s by Dr. Luther Bell. Bell and his team described it as "exhaustive mania" or "agitated delirium," Mash says. "People would present with this bizarre behaviour — extremely agitated, incoherent speech — really like a manic phase. Then, all of a sudden they become hot and they would have an autonomic system failure. Their cardio-respiratory system would fail and they would collapse."

But the key study that described the phenomenon was released in 1985 by Dr. Charles Wetli, Mash said. It looked into excited delirium and cocaine abuse in Miami, which was experiencing the first wave of the crack-cocaine epidemic that swept through North America. Mash said Wetli outlined the same set of behaviours — agitation, superhuman strength, high pain tolerance — and determined that the condition could be triggered by drugs, alcohol or other stimulants.

"These can sort of trip the switch in vulnerable individuals," she said. "You can also see this with alcohol withdrawal, you can see it in psychiatric patients. It's always the same pattern."

However, these substances don't need to be present to trigger the condition. Excited delirium can also manifest itself in vulnerable patients who are under unusual stress or are sleep-deprived, she says.

Sudden death

While the underlying mechanism of this disease is still unclear, this brain-based illness can lead to sudden death, Mash notes. "The reason people question it is because law enforcement is involved," she argues. "When Dr. Bell described these conditions in the mid-1800s, law enforcement was not involved. These people died in the institutions where they were being housed."

At the time, because these patients were difficult to reason with, they were restrained. The difference today, she says, is the method. "Over the years, they've used various forms of restraints. Some have been hog-tied, some have been in hobble restraints, some have had baton strikes, some have had pepper spray, and more recently now the Taser," Mash says. "What I've seen is that there's no difference from pre-Taser times to the present when Tasers are used."

For his part, however, Dawe says it's uncommon to have patients with delirium suddenly die at facilities such as St. Michael's Hospital. All medical staff are trained how to handle patients who are acting agitated and they can usually be talked down from their state, he says. Medical staff use a technique that includes speaking in calm tones, no matter the reaction of the patient, and neutral body language such as uncrossed arms. They try to figure out why the person is acting agitated and treat it.

Restraint is a last resort, he says. "We believe that we are very successful in helping someone come down from an agitated place in a safe and controlled manner," Dawe says.

Dr. Peter Bieling, manager of the mood disorders program at St. Joseph's Health Care in Hamilton, Ont., said some of the responsibility rests with the police force or those who are called to deal with people with this condition. "If you do know that somebody is in a vulnerable state, maybe you shouldn't use that level of force. Maybe there's something else that could be done. You have to conclude, and this is true for all mental illness, a person can have the disorder, but usually it doesn't fully manifest, it doesn't hit its full impact without a stressor being in place," he says.

The real challenge

Excited delirium hasn't officially made its way into the medical books yet, but Mash believes it's only a matter of time. "It will be recognized," she says. "But these cases are rare. We're seeing more of them now for various reasons, including because people are recognizing the condition."

However, Bieling is skeptical. "When you look at the other things that can resemble excited delirium, such as panic, hypomania, I would say that probably in most cases, those other things are likely going to be the explanation. If I were a betting person, I would think it's not going to make it into the next diagnostic manual," he says.

Bieling also argues that there hasn't been enough research on excited delirium to warrant classification. "I just don't think we know," he says. "And the usual way that we figure these things out is we do studies. We do careful studies to look at prevalence."

But that's where the problem lies. Because deaths of people with these specific symptoms are rare, research in this area is automatically limited. What's more, "what's going to make this one tough is it's so tied to a specific set of circumstances," Bieling says. "We're not talking about something that's going to affect a huge amount of people in the general population, like depression or anxiety. What we're talking about is a specific set of circumstances when people are in police custody. That's going to make it really, really challenging."

Sister of New Brunswick man who died after police taser attack calls for national ban

November 21, 2007
CBC

FREDERICTON - The sister of a New Brunswick man who died after police repeatedly shocked him with a Taser says the devices should be banned across Canada until their safety can be proven. Karen Geldart of Moncton, N.B., said Wednesday the furor over the death of a Polish man who was stunned with a police Taser at Vancouver International Airport is vindicating concerns she has had since her brother Kevin Geldart died in 2005.

Geldart, 34, died in a Moncton, N.B., bar after a confrontation with four RCMP officers. He was shocked so often, including to his head, that witnesses said the smell of burning flesh made it hard to breathe. "I don't want to sound macabre, but I'm satisfied there has been such a public outcry," Geldart said, referring to the national outpouring of concern over the videotaped death of Polish citizen, Robert Dziekanski, on Oct. 14. "I feel somewhat vindicated. Kevin, I believe, died in vain because other deaths occurred after he died. Let's hope that's not the case with Mr. Dziekanski's death."

Geldart said there should be a single, comprehensive and national review of the use of Tasers by all police forces in Canada. "A piecemeal approach won't work," she said.

There are already several inquiries and reviews that have been announced at provincial and federal levels. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has asked the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP to review the force's use of Tasers, but has stopped short of the national independent inquiry that opposition parties and people such as Geldart are demanding.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has suspended its use of Tasers in the field and is reassessing a plan to buy more of the electrical devices.

Mike Quigley, director of policing services for New Brunswick, said the province is nearing the end of its review of Taser use. He said the province will soon announce a policy governing use of the weapons by municipal forces - a policy that will be passed along to the RCMP for its consideration. Quigley said a ban on Tasers is not on the agenda.

"It's basically a review of how they are used, under what circumstances they might be used and the fact that, in consideration of the use of the Taser device itself, police officers must consider all other standard force options available to them," he said.

Geldart died on the floor of a Moncton bar after four RCMP officers shocked and pepper-sprayed him into submission. The RCMP investigated its own officers involved in the incident and absolved them of any wrongdoing.

Medical experts said the multiple shocks - there were eight Taser wounds on Geldart, including three sets of marks on the back of his head - may have been a contributing factor to his death. But they insisted the cause of death was excited delirium - a state of agitated, exhaustive mania.

Karen Geldart said there are eerie similarities between her brother's death and Dziekanski's. She said her family was told by the RCMP that Kevin, who was mentally ill, was "combative and aggressive" and they had no choice but to use the Taser. She said the family was stunned to learn from witnesses that her brother had been acting strangely, but not violently, and seemed frightened by the police actions against him.

"To me, Mr. Dziekanski's death was deja vu," she said. "It was very eerie to hear the press releases coming out of the RCMP. It sounded a lot like what they said about Kevin. "To me they are using the same playbook they used with Kevin. There are a lot of scary similarities. If the incident had to occur, I'm relieved it was caught on tape."

Is 'excited delirium' at the root of many taser deaths?

November 21, 2007
CBC News

When police arrived at the Right Spot bar in downtown Moncton on May 5, 2005, Kevin Geldart was acting strangely. The 34-year-old had a history of bipolar disorder and had somehow walked away from the psychiatric unit of a nearby hospital earlier that night. Police said Geldart was acting combative and violent, and seemed to possess superhuman strength. However, witnesses testified Geldart was talking to himself in a corner but wasn't aggressive to those around him, according to his sister, Karen.

Officers used pepper spray and a Taser, as many as four times, to try and subdue the six-foot-six, 300-pound man. Then four officers pinned Geldart down, tied his feet and cuffed his hands. It was then that the police noticed Geldart had stopped breathing. He was later pronounced dead at a Moncton Hospital.

Fast forward to Oct. 14, 2007.

A similar scene, except this time the setting is at the other side of the country — Vancouver International Airport. Robert Dziekanski had just flown in from Poland and couldn’t speak a word of English. The 40-year-old came to start a new life in Canada with his mother and was waiting in the customs area for her to pick him up. By 1:00 a.m., he had been waiting more than eight hours. For reasons that are still unclear, he never saw her. It was at that point that Dziekanski started acting confused and agitated and began throwing around computer equipment. RCMP were called to the scene. According to an eyewitness video, four officers approached Dziekanski, who stood calmly while talking to them. Dziekanski then walked away and stood by a wall. Seconds later, a loud crack is heard. Dziekanski is shocked by a Taser, wails and collapses to the ground. The officers kneel on top of him, pinning him down as he struggles. He died minutes later.

In both of these sudden deaths, what's the culprit?

A rare condition

Some psychologists say the cause is a rare condition called "excited delirium" and not the obvious common element — the use of a Taser. According to some psychologists, a person with excited delirium acts agitated, violent, sweats profusely and is unusually strong and insensitive to pain. Then, the victim's heart races and eventually stops beating. A coroner’s inquest into Geldart’s death concluded he was suffering from excited delirium on the night he died.

And while the B.C. coroner’s service has not yet determined what killed Dziekanski — an autopsy failed to reveal a clear cause — RCMP have speculated the 40-year-old was also suffering from excited delirium. "This is not due to a Taser," says Deborah Mash, a neurology professor at the University of Miami who has been studying excited delirium for 20 years. "This is in the brain and they die because the mechanisms that control the heart and the lungs fail."

In recent years, the condition has been showing up in coroner’s reports around the world as a cause of death. Yet, this condition is the subject of fierce debate in psychiatric circles.

Dr. Ian Dawe, the director of psychiatric emergency services at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says excited delirium is not a recognized mental disorder. In fact, the term is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, a handbook for professional psychologists and psychiatrists. "The term 'excited delirium' has been co-opted over the course of popular culture, perhaps over the past 15 to 20 years, to refer to this group of people who experience agitation and violence," Dawe told CBC News. Delirium on its own, however, is a well known disorder, which is marked by confusion and agitation and can be associated with violence. It's usually triggered by another factor such as drugs or a predisposed medical illness, says Dawe.

He's not sure where the prefix "excited" comes from. And in his experience, he says it is uncommon to see patients with delirium suddenly die. "It is rare. Certainly we don’t see it happen in hospitals per se because of the way that we are approaching things."

First reported in the 1800s

According to Dr. Mash, however, individuals with excited delirium symptoms were first reported in the 1800s by Dr. Luther Bell. Bell and his team described it as "exhaustive mania" or "agitated delirium," Mash says. "People would present with this bizarre behaviour — extremely agitated, incoherent speech — really like a manic phase. Then, all of a sudden they become hot and they would have an autonomic system failure. Their cardio-respiratory system would fail and they would collapse."

But the key study that described the phenomenon was released in 1985 by Dr. Charles Wetli, Mash said. It looked into excited delirium and cocaine abuse in Miami, which was experiencing the first wave of the crack-cocaine epidemic that swept through North America. Mash said Wetli outlined the same set of behaviours — agitation, superhuman strength, high pain tolerance — and determined that the condition could be triggered by drugs, alcohol or other stimulants. "These can sort of trip the switch in vulnerable individuals," she said. "You can also see this with alcohol withdrawal, you can see it in psychiatric patients. It's always the same pattern." However, these substances don't need to be present to trigger the condition. Excited delirium can also manifest itself in vulnerable patients who are under unusual stress or are sleep-deprived, she says.

Sudden death

While the underlying mechanism of this disease is still unclear, this brain-based illness can lead to sudden death, Mash notes. "The reason people question it is because law enforcement is involved," she argues. "When Dr. Bell described these conditions in the mid-1800s, law enforcement was not involved. These people died in the institutions where they were being housed." At the time, because these patients were difficult to reason with, they were restrained. The difference today, she says, is the method. "Over the years, they've used various forms of restraints. Some have been hog-tied, some have been in hobble restraints, some have had baton strikes, some have had pepper spray, and more recently now the Taser," Mash says. "What I've seen is that there's no difference from pre-Taser times to the present when Tasers are used."

For his part, however, Dawe says it's uncommon to have patients with delirium suddenly die at facilities such as St. Michael's Hospital. All medical staff are trained how to handle patients who are acting agitated and they can usually be talked down from their state, he says. Medical staff use a technique that includes speaking in calm tones, no matter the reaction of the patient, and neutral body language such as uncrossed arms. They try to figure out why the person is acting agitated and treat it. Restraint is a last resort, he says. "We believe that we are very successful in helping someone come down from an agitated place in a safe and controlled manner," Dawe says.

Dr. Peter Bieling, manager of the mood disorders program at St. Joseph's Health Care in Hamilton, Ont., said some of the responsibility rests with the police force or those who are called to deal with people with this condition. "If you do know that somebody is in a vulnerable state, maybe you shouldn't use that level of force. Maybe there's something else that could be done. "You have to conclude, and this is true for all mental illness, a person can have the disorder, but usually it doesn't fully manifest, it doesn't hit its full impact without a stressor being in place," he says.

The real challenge

Excited delirium hasn't officially made its way into the medical books yet, but Mash believes it's only a matter of time. "It will be recognized," she says. "But these cases are rare. We're seeing more of them now for various reasons, including because people are recognizing the condition."

However, Bieling is skeptical. "When you look at the other things that can resemble excited delirium, such as panic, hypomania, I would say that probably in most cases, those other things are likely going to be the explanation. "If I were a betting person, I would think it's not going to make it into the next diagnostic manual," he says. Bieling also argues that there hasn't been enough research on excited delirium to warrant classification. "I just don't think we know," he says. "And the usual way that we figure these things out is we do studies. We do careful studies to look at prevalence."

But that's where the problem lies. Because deaths of people with these specific symptoms are rare, research in this area is automatically limited. What's more, "what's going to make this one tough is it's so tied to a specific set of circumstances," Bieling says. "We're not talking about something that's going to affect a huge amount of people in the general population, like depression or anxiety. What we're talking about is a specific set of circumstances when people are in police custody. That's going to make it really, really challenging."

CANADA - Inappropriate and Excessive Use of Tasers

May 23, 2007
Amnesty International

New Brunswick man's death from excited delirium raises questions about police Tasers

March 11, 2007
The Canadian Press

FREDERICTON -- A New Brunswick man's death due to a mysterious malady called excited delirium has raised more questions about police arrest techniques and the growing use of stun guns.

Kevin Geldart, 34, of Moncton, N.B., died after he was repeatedly shocked with Taser weapons by RCMP officers in 2005.

It was another in a long series of deaths in North America following the use of police force and Taser guns to control people who are described as combative, irrational and extraordinarily strong.

In most of these cases, the cause of death is difficult to pinpoint and is often attributed to cardiac arrest, drug intoxication or a combination of the two.

But a New Brunswick coroner's inquest into Geldart's death earlier this month ruled that the large, mentally ill man died of excited delirium -- a condition that cannot be found in medical or psychiatric text books.

"Excited delirium is not a diagnosis used in psychiatry,'' says Dr. Roumen Milev of the Mood Disorders Clinic at the Providence Continuing Care Centre in Kingston, Ont. "It does not exist as such either in the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic and statistical manual, or in the World Health Organization's international classification of diseases.''

Critics say excited delirium exists purely in the imaginations of those who are anxious to defend the use of Taser weapons and excessive police force.

Eric Balaban, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says that blaming excited delirium for in-custody deaths could be a way of whitewashing inappropriate use of force by police. "It's not recognized as a mental-health diagnosis,'' Balaban says. "It is really used only by medical examiners to attribute the cause of death of an arrestee following a violent scuffle with police officers.''

Whatever excited delirium may be, it is characterized by extreme agitation, incoherence, bizarre behaviour, often superhuman strength and a high body temperature.

It is associated with drug abuse and mental illness, and occurs often in people who, like Geldart, are very large. Geldart was tall and weighed at least 350 pounds.

Family members and friends of people who die during police Taser arrests are almost always unsatisfied with descriptions of the cause of death and the fact that the police are exonerated.

One of Geldart's relatives has called for a moratorium on the use of Tasers until more is known about the effects of the weapon on people, especially on those with mental illness.

So far, 212 people in North America have died following custody struggles with Taser-wielding police officers -- at least 15 of them in Canada, where the weapon has been used since 2001.

In all cases, the stun gun has been cleared of any direct involvement in the deaths, even in cases like Geldart's, where there were eight Taser injuries to his body and head.

"I'm not aware of any case in the world where the conductive energy weapon has been found to be the factor that caused death,'' Sgt. Richard Groulx, an RCMP training and tactical weapons expert, told the New Brunswick inquest.

The Taser delivers a pulsating, 50,000-volt electrical current through the body, and police say it can pierce clothing four centimetres thick. The shock, which lasts up to five seconds, locks muscles instantly and overrides the central nervous system.

Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of neurology at the University of Miami and a leading expert in North America on excited delirium, says the ultimate goal of her research is to establish a protocol so police know how to handle people exhibiting signs of the condition.

Mash says excited delirium is a real brain disorder. "There are clearly neuro-chemical changes in the brain,'' she says. "There is a defect. The issue of police brutality is simply wrong. That's not to say it can't occur, but when the police are confronted by someone exhibiting superhuman strength like a Hulk Hogan ... what can they do?''

Mash says the phenomenon came to light in the 1980s, when crack cocaine first burst onto the Florida drug scene. She says many victims have cocaine or drugs in their systems, although mentally ill people like Geldart, who was bipolar, are also susceptible. "It doesn't have to be drug-related,'' she says. "There are a number of triggers that will pop the switch.''

Mash says no one knows the best intervention techniques for police when confronted by an individual in the throes of excited delirium. She says she hopes a standard of practice can be developed. She also says research may ultimately unlock a clear diagnosis of the disorder, so victims can be identified before they run into trouble.

"Thanks to advances in molecular biology, we have an opportunity to look for the first time for real diagnostic markers, and that's what we need,'' Mash says.

New Brunswick police to monitor Taser use

March 7, 2007
CBC News

A new policy on how police in New Brunswick can use force to apprehend suspects will include a requirement to track the use of Taser weapons. The rules will apply to municipal forces, but not the Mounties.

The province, along with the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police, is drafting a new use of force policy because the one currently in place doesn't include monitoring the use of Tasers, said Mike Quigley, director of policing services for the province.

"At this time there are only three of the municipal regional police forces that have been using it for a year or two, but other police forces have expressed interest," Quigley said Tuesday.

The RCMP does have a Taser-use policy in place, but Quigley said he'll pass along a copy of the province's new policy to the RCMP once it is complete.

The announcement of the new policy comes days after the conclusion of a coroner's inquest into the Taser-related death of Kevin Geldart.

Geldart died in May 2005 after RCMP officers used Taser weapons to subdue him at a Moncton bar. He had walked away hours earlier from the psychiatric ward at Moncton Hospital where he was being treated for bipolar disorder.

At an inquest completed last week, the jury determined the cause of death was a condition known as excited delirium, but found that injuries from the Taser weapon contributed to it.

Quigley said the new policy could be adopted by municipal forces this summer.

"We're hoping to achieve the final draft by the end of June and it will have to proceed through the policy committee of the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police," Quigley said. "That procedure is not expected to be very lengthy."

Taser inquest disappoints relatives of N.B. man

March 5, 2007
CHRIS MORRIS, Canadian Press; Rick Cash and Johanna Boffa

MONCTON -- Relatives of a New Brunswick man who died after he was repeatedly shocked by police with a taser say they are disappointed with a coroner's jury that recommended better training for police and medical officials.

A coroner's inquest into the sudden death of 34-year-old Kevin Geldart ruled on Friday that he died accidentally of a condition known as excited delirium, with contributing factors.

A pathologist testified during the eight-day inquest that "contributing factors" included repeated shocks to Mr. Geldart's torso and head from an RCMP taser weapon.

"There should be a moratorium on tasers until they know more about them and their effect on people," said Margaret Geldart, Mr. Geldart's aunt.

Mr. Geldart's sister, Karen Geldart, said she was disappointed the five-member jury did not go beyond recommending more training and education for police and emergency medical personnel.

"There is so much that is unknown about these tasers," she said. "It was clear to me that even though the police officers were trained to use the taser, they didn't seem to have a good understanding of when it is appropriate to use and when it is not."

Mr. Geldart, described by his family as a gentle giant of a man, died on May 5, 2005, after four RCMP officers attempted to take him into custody at a downtown Moncton bar.

The victim, who weighed 350 pounds, had earlier slipped out of a hospital psychiatric ward where he was being treated for bipolar disorder.

The coroner's jury made 16 recommendations calling for such things as seminars on tasers for police, recertification of taser instructors every five years and changes to the weapon itself to make sure it accurately records each firing.

It was not clear from police evidence presented at the inquest exactly how many times the taser was used against Mr. Geldart, although pathologist Ken Obenson said there were eight taser injuries on his body.

Karen Geldart said there were inconsistencies in the evidence, which has left family members wondering what actually happened. She said she was bothered by the fact that witnesses at the bar described her brother as scared and confused in his final moments, while police officers said he was aggressive and combative.

Coroner Dianne Kelly made several recommendations of her own on Friday, including the referral of all in-custody deaths to independent agencies for investigation.

Although four RCMP officers were involved in the incident, the investigation into what happened was handled by fellow RCMP officers in Fredericton.

Ms. Kelly also recommended that New Brunswick police agencies develop policies on tasers, including training.

The inquest came at a time when more people are asking questions about the usefulness of the taser as a so-called non-lethal weapon to control violent behaviour.

So far, 212 people have died in incidents in Canada and the United States where tasers have been deployed.

In the vast majority of those cases, pathologists have not been able to clearly identify a cause of death. In many cases, including the Geldart case, death has been attributed to a relatively new condition called excited delirium.

Other taser inquests

Gurmit Singh Sundhu: Died June 30, 2005, after he was restrained by at least two RCMP officers. Police were called to his Surrey, B.C., home where the man was allegedly assaulting his wife in a cocaine-induced state. The 40-year-old father of four was hit by a taser gun a number of times by the first officer at the scene. The coroner's inquest concluded that the cause of death was acute cocaine intoxication.

Robert Bagnell: Died June 23, 2004, after police were called to a Granville Street hotel in Vancouver where Mr. Bagnell had barricaded himself. According to the pathologist and toxicologist who testified at the inquest, death was due to heart problems and acute cocaine intoxication. B.C. coroner Stephen Fonseca abruptly shut down the inquest in September, 2006, after the family of the victim tried to introduce a letter from the Victoria chief of police that raised concerns about the use of tasers. The inquest is adjourned until March 7.

James Foldi: Died July 1, 2005, in Beamsville, Ont., after he was tasered at least 12 times, including 11 times using what is known as a drive stun technique, where the device is pressed against the person and fired. Mr. Foldi, who was acting erratically, allegedly from a cocaine overdose, rampaged through several houses in his neighbourhood and tried to flee when confronted by three police officers. They struggled for a few minutes, during which time the tasers were used. Mr. Foldi fell to the ground, lost consciousness and never recovered. An inquest is pending.

Roman Andreichikov: Died on May 1, 2004, after he was subdued by police officers who responded to a 911 call about a potential suicide. Mr. Andreichikov, a fitness trainer, had been on a five-day cocaine binge, and after fighting with his girlfriend tried to commit suicide twice by attempting to leap from the fourth floor balcony of his Granville Street apartment in Vancouver. The police had difficulty subduing him and tasered him twice. The inquest decided that cardiac arrest and cocaine intoxication, not the taser, were responsible for his death.

Peter Lamonday: Died on May 14, 2004, after police responded to a break-in at a Hamilton Road gift shop in London. Eight officers attempted to subdue him, and during the altercation Mr. Lamonday was tasered three times. He died about 50 minutes later in hospital. The inquest decided that Mr. Lamonday died from cocaine-induced delirium.

Research: Rick Cash and Johanna Boffa

N.B. inquest into death of Tasered man told police cleared of wrongdoing

March 1, 2007
Craig Babstock - Moncton Times and Transcript

"Staff Sgt. Gerry Belliveau did note that there were three Taser burns to the back of Geldart’s head. This is not an area recommended for shocking during Taser training, but Belliveau said it played no role in the outcome that night. According to Belliveau, Geldart was Tasered three times by police that night, despite testimony from witnesses he was shocked several more times than that.

There are still unanswered questions about the use of the Taser that night. The weapon has a memory that tells when it’s activated or used and that report is confusing at best. Police identified three Taser activations from that report they say correspond with the three hits on Geldart. However, the report says those three hits happened over a span of 13 minutes. Officers involved that night testified the struggle with Geldart only lasted a couple of minutes."

Taser alone didn't kill Geldart: pathologist

February 28, 2007
CBC News

A temporary condition, not an electronic stun gun used by Moncton police, was likely to blame for the death of a psychiatric patient, an inquest heard Wednesday.

Kevin Geldart, 34, who had walked away from the psychiatric unit at the Moncton Hospital, died in the Right Spot bar on May 5th, 2005, after police used a Taser in a bid to subdue him.

Ken Obenson, the pathologist who examined Geldart's body, told the inquest that in his opinion the primary cause of Geldart's death was "excited delirium," a condition in which a mentally ill person is acutely agitated, violent, sweating profusely and showing an insensitivity to pain.

Geldart showed many of those symptoms, according to previous testimony from four police officers who confronted him at the Right Spot Bar in Moncton. The officers used pepper spray and a Taser, an electronic stun gun, to try to subdue Geldart, who was six-feet-six inches tall, weighed more than 350 lbs., and suffered from asthma.

Obenson said that because an agitated Geldart was wrestling with police, his adrenaline level would have been high.

His potassium level would also have been high, Obsenson said, and that would have protected his heart. However, once restrained, his potassium level would have dropped, Obenson said, and that would have lead to arrthymia, an upset in the heart's normal rhythm.

Obenson said the Taser, pepper spray and Geldart's obesity might have been contributing factors in his death. But even if those factors had not been present, he said, the outcome still would have likely been death.

However, if the condition of excited delirium were removed, and every other factor left in place, Obenson said, Geldart likely wouldn't have died.

Tasers rarely kill, inquest told

February 28, 2007
Canadian Press

N.B. man died as police applied repeated shocks to subdue him

MONCTON -- A bioelectricity expert has told an inquest into the death of a man who had been tasered by police that there are almost no recorded cases of the devices killing people.

"There have been deaths following taser use, such as the one before you, but in no case was it caused by the taser," J. Patrick Riley said yesterday.

In each case, he said, "other factors were present."

Mr. Riley was testifying at the inquest into the death of Kevin Geldart, 34, of Riverview, N.B., who died May 5, 2005, after being shocked several times by RCMP officers.

Mr. Geldart, who suffered from bipolar disorder, left the psychiatric unit of the Moncton Hospital that night. Police were called when he showed up at a bar and began acting strangely.

He was heavily medicated and likely experiencing a psychotic episode.

Mr. Riley is an electrical engineer who works at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He's an expert on the effects of electricity on living creatures and this is the third time he's testified at a Canadian inquest into a taser-related death.

Mr. Riley said aside from the death of a seven-month-old child who was shocked repeatedly by her foster mother, there are no cases where a person died solely because they were shocked by a conducted-energy weapon such as a taser.

But he also said more research needs to be done on tasers to fully understand how they affect people.

For example, inquest legal counsel Nicole Poirier asked Mr. Riley about the effects of a taser on an individual who was mentally ill, heavily medicated, recently pepper-sprayed or suffering from asthma -- all factors that applied to Mr. Geldart.

Mr. Riley said he's not familiar with any research that covers those specific circumstances.

He did list several factors that could make an individual more sensitive to this kind of electrical shock. They include people high on illegal drugs such as cocaine, pregnant women, young children, the elderly, thin or small people, and people with physical conditions such as muscle injuries.

Women would likely be affected more by tasers because they're smaller, on average.

Large people -- like the 6-foot-6, 360-pound Mr. Geldart -- tend to be less affected.

"The larger person tends to be less sensitive so they require a larger dose of electricity to have the same effect as a smaller person," Mr. Riley said.

Mr. Geldart had been tasered in November of 2003 and didn't stiffen and fall down, like most people do. He simply kneeled down and allowed police to cuff him, the inquest was told.

Police testified that at the bar the night of his death, he didn't react or slow down when they shocked him.

Four officers struggled with him and pinned him to the floor as he tried to escape. Police wanted to take him back to the hospital, but he wouldn't go and witnesses said he looked scared of the officers. When they finally had him cuffed, they realized he was no longer breathing.

At various times, police, firefighters and paramedics worked on Mr. Geldart, but he never recovered.

Mr. Geldart's death is being blamed on excited delirium, a condition that will be explained as the inquest proceeds.

*****

How a taser weapon works

A taser weapon uses compressed gas to launch a pair of small darts at its target. The darts are connected to the weapon with wires. When the darts make contact, an electrical charge is released from the weapon through the wires. The charge is strong enough to disrupt the human body's electrical impulses. This disrupts the central nervous system, causing the muscles to contract. The target usually recovers within several minutes.

---

Air cartridge: Uses compressed nitrogen to fire darts.

Fine sight: Allows user to line up the target.

Screen: Shows power level remaining.

Laser sight: Activated when safety off.

Blast doors: Fly off when fired.

Darts: Fired at 60 metres per second.

Wires: Carry the electrical pulse to the target.

ID tags: Are dispensed when the gun is fired making the use traceable.

HITTING THE TARGET

Distance: The optimum shot is from 2 to 3 metres away from the target to achieve maximum effect.

Effectiveness: As long as the spread of the probes is at least 10 centimetres, the taser will be extremely effective.

Through clothing: Will work through up to 5 cm of cumulative clothing, even leather jacks.

Recovery time: Varies by individual - generally several minutes.

Automatic impulse regulation: Once the probes are launched, unit stay active for 5 seconds to keep target reliably down.

IF THE TARGET IS MISSED

There are 2 stun electrodes on the front of the unit that can be used to incapacitate the person by making direct contract.

SOURCE: TASERX26.COM

February 27, 2007
Craig Babstock, Canadaeast News Service

"Almost 18 months before Kevin Geldart died after being Tasered by police, he had an encounter with Codiac RCMP officers and a Taser, an inquest into the man's death heard Monday. It was the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2003, and Geldart was reported to the police after leaving The Moncton Hospital. Officers found him nearby, on MacBeath Avenue, and Const. Denis Hache approached him on the sidewalk. Hache had brought him to the hospital two years earlier at the request of his parents. He went to the Geldart home in neighbouring Riverview and spent more than an hour convincing the mentally ill man to go to the hospital. So when Hache approached Geldart on MacBeath, they were familiar with each other. Hache, supported by several other officers, said they were going to bring him back to the hospital, but Geldart refused. The six-foot-six, 360-pound Geldart sat down on the sidewalk. Hache warned he would use a Taser if he had to, but it didn't change Geldart's mind. Two officers approached, grabbing an arm each and lifting the large man up. Geldart stood, but then pushed the two Mounties away. One took out a baton and struck him on the back of the legs. Hache then shot him with the Taser. He expected Geldart to fall, stiffen or become incapacitated, but none of those things happened. The big man casually got down on his knees and lay on his stomach, allowing them to cuff him. Hache then walked him up the street to the hospital, because he wouldn't fit in the back of the patrol car. They talked about the Taser as they walked along. "He said shock therapy hurt more," Hache testified Monday at a coroner's inquest. "He said if he really wanted to, that little toy wouldn't stop him."

On the night of May 5, 2005, four officers were trying to subdue Geldart after the hospital's psychiatric unit reported he'd gone missing. He died after being Tasered several times. The officers testified Monday that the electrical shock seemed to have no effect on the man. "We were on the cusp of losing control of him," testified Const. Zane McLure. "It was a sick feeling because if he got control of us, we were done." The inquest began last Wednesday and continues all this week in Court of Queen's Bench. New Brunswick's chief coroner Dianne Kelly is presiding and Nicole Poirier of the Office of the Attorney General is serving as legal counsel. The inquest won't lay blame, but will clarify the facts and circumstances of the death. On Friday, a jury will make recommendations for preventing such deaths in the future.

On the opening day, Kelly said evidence would be heard that Geldart's death was blamed on excited elirium. An expert will testify about that later in the inquest. It's still not clear how many times Geldart was Tasered in 2005, with evidence indicating it could be anywhere from three times to a half dozen.

Geldart, 34, was brought to the hospital May 2, after suffering a psychotic episode. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression, in his late teens and had spent time in the psych ward on different occasions. He had been in the locked portion of the ward on this visit, until he was transferred to the unlocked part of the unit the morning of May 5. He left the hospital that night for a cigarette and never came back, eventually showing up at the Right Spot bar. Staff called police because Geldart was acting strangely and talking to himself in the mirror. Three RCMP officers showed up and entered the bar, with a fourth arriving halfway through the encounter. Staff Sgt. Al Parker was the first Mountie through the door that night. The 30-year veteran, who retired from the force last month, told his two colleagues he would take the lead. "We get 500 to 600 of these calls a year," Parker testified, referring to cases involving mentally ill or suicidal individuals. "99.9999 per cent of the time, we talk to them and give them a drive back to the hospital." That's what he tried, but it didn't work.

The officers went to the back of the bar, Parker in the lead, followed by Const. Dominique Pharand and Const. Pierre-Luc Hache, who both had a year of service with the Mounties at the time. Police had been warned by the hospital Geldart could be dangerous and were also concerned because of earlier reports about his behaviour, so Parker told Hache to have his Taser ready. They found Geldart talking to himself in the mirror. Parker called him by his name and asked if they could give him a lift. "He turned around to face me and that's when I knew I was in trouble," he said. Geldart was breathing heavily, sweating profusely and his pupils were completely dilated. "I figured I'd tell it like it is and not baloney him."

Parker told him he had to go back to the hospital and asked him to put his hands on the pool table so they could search him. He put his hand on Geldart's shoulder. "He said, 'You put your hands on the table,' in a very slow and slurred way," said Parker. "That's when he shoved me out of the way." The staff sergeant thought the man was on drugs. He told the jury he's had many experiences dealing with intoxicated people and Geldart appeared to be on something. (Geldart was medicated while at the hospital.) Geldart then ran past the officers and vaulted over a short wall, landing on a table and falling to the floor. They caught up to him and made a semi-circle around him as he stood against a wall. Parker said Geldart got up and bolted at him, like a football player.

"He was halfway to me and I told Pierre-Luc to give it to him, let him have it," said Parker."

Taser didn't stun giant man, inquest told

February 27, 2007
Craig Babstock, Canadian Press

Former officer apologizes at Taser inquest

February 27, 2007
CBC News

A police officer testifying at the coroner's inquest into the death of a psychiatric patient has apologized to the late man's sister.

Kevin Geldart, a patient who walked away from the psychiatric unit at Moncton Hospital, died May 5th, 2005, after police used an electric stun gun to help subdue him at a downtown bar.

Al Parker, a retired 30-year police veteran and former staff sergeant, testified Monday that when he answered a call to the Right Spot bar in Moncton two years ago, he knew he would be dealing with a psychiatric patient.

Parker said he knew he was in trouble when Geldart turned to look at him, his pupils dilated, his eyes glassy. Parker said Geldart looked like he was on drugs.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," Parker said, apologizing to Geldart's sister, Karen Geldart.

"I'm sure you didn't, and I'm sorry you'll all have to live with it," she replied, referring to other officers involved in the altercation.

All four police officers who were present that night testified that Geldart seemed to possess superhuman strength during the struggle that followed, and that pepper spray and repeated shocks from a Taser stun gun seemed to have little effect on him.

It was not clear how many times the Taser was actually fired. Two officers testified they used the stun gun that night.

Const. Pierre Luc Hache said he used the Taser three times, but a report he filed later said he had used it twice. Const. Zane MacLure said he used the Taser once, but that it could still have been firing after the initial contact.

All four said Geldart was fighting officers off, and almost overpowered them. They all testified that Geldart looked scared, and was sweating and refusing to go with police.

It took all four officers to wrestle Geldart down, tie his feet and cuff him. They testified it was only after they cuffed him that they noticed that Geldart had stopped breathing.

Parker said he wishes he'd had more information about Geldart's condition, and the effects of the medications he was on before arriving on the scene that night. He said he's often wondered why it's not the ambulance, rather than police, who respond to those calls.

He said police receive between 500 and 600 calls a year to deal with psychiatric patients. A half-dozen of those calls, Parker said, are for involuntary patients, such as Geldart, who have walked away from the psychiatric unit of a hospital.

Inquest probes Taser-related death

February 22, 2007
CBC News

"Karen Geldart was the first to testify at the inquest probing the death of Kevin Geldart, 34. "Ultimately, we just want to make sure this doesn't happen to someone else's family," she said. "It was, I think, a preventable thing. It possibly could have been handled in a different way, and if it had been, maybe he'd still be here.""

Fredericton police to use Tasers despite controversy

January 10, 2007
CBC News

Fredericton's police department is spending nearly $40,000 to arm officers with Tasers following a two-year pilot program.

Police Chief Barry McKnight says officers have used the weapon, which delivers up to 50,000 volts of electricity to the victim, 13 times during arrests since 2004. He acknowledges the stun guns are controversial, but insists they are safe and will help police do their jobs.

But Fredericton activist Asaf Rashid says arming officers with Tasers is a bad idea. Rashid was arrested last May at a downtown rally. The officer who arrested him is facing an assault charge and Rashid says the use of Tasers in a similar situation could be dangerous. "One of the huge problems with Tasers is that they are classified as non-lethal weapons, and I totally disagree that they're non-lethal weapons."

Police forces across New Brunswick have been using Tasers for years, but not without some problems. In May 2005, Moncton resident Kevin Geldart died after RCMP used a Taser outside a city nightclub. His death will be examined at a coroner's inquest beginning Feb. 21. In September 2006, human rights groups condemned the Hampton RCMP for using a Taser on a 17-year-old boy at a house party more than a dozen times. The teen was later charged with resisting arrest.

Despite all that, McKnight says research by police agencies and the National Research Council has convinced him that Tasers are safe, when used properly.

N.B. police probe Taser death

May 7, 2005
CNEWS

N.B. death after taser use being probed

May 7, 2005
CP

MONCTON, N.B. -- The death of a 34-year-old New Brunswick man who collapsed after Mounties used a taser gun to subdue him is being investigated by RCMP.

Corporal Terry Kennedy, a spokesman for the RCMP, said yesterday that officers from Fredericton have taken over the investigation into the death of Kevin Geldart of Riverview.

Mr. Geldart died after Moncton RCMP officers shocked him with a taser, a high-voltage stun device, at a bar in Moncton late Thursday.

"When our members arrived, they were confronted by a man who was 6 foot 6 and about 300 pounds," Cpl. Kennedy said. "He was aggressive and violent toward the members. As a result, the taser was used to control the gentleman."

Cpl. Kennedy said officers handcuffed Mr. Geldart after he slumped to the floor. It was then that they realized he was unconscious and unresponsive.

An ambulance was called, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Cpl. Kennedy said Mr. Geldart had been missing from a local psychiatric unit.

The RCMP investigation will include an autopsy. "Obviously, we want to find out exactly the cause of death," Cpl. Kennedy said.

The taser is becoming the subject of intense public and police scrutiny as a result of the growing number of deaths associated with its use.

At an inquest this month in London, Ont., Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, said that since 2003, nine Canadians had died shortly after being shot by a police taser.

But Dr. Cairns said that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause deaths. All nine people were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows the affected person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

"The evidence is overwhelming that [tasers have] saved many, many lives," Dr. Cairns told the Ontario inquest.