Taser used to break up teen brawl

September 23, 2011
Dale Carruthers, QMI Agency

LONDON, Ont. - A teenager is in hospital and a group of high school students are threatening a protest against police after an officer used a Taser to break up a brawl in London, Ont., on Thursday.

The clash between two young men around noon was captured on a cellphone video reviewed by QMI Agency and later posted to YouTube.

The images show one combatant hitting the other with a chair, when an officer on foot hurries in from the street and shoots a dart from a Taser stun gun at a young man wearing jeans and a black shirt.

From the video, it appears the two boys had separated when the officer approached.

The crowd gasps in horror as the Taser's prongs appear to hit the young man in the face. He falls to the ground and is motionless for nearly one minute.

"You shot him in the head. You never even asked him," screams another male on the video.

The officer didn't give any warning before using his stun gun, said witness Vivian Greening.

"He just pulled out the Taser and shot him," she said. "They didn't even try to talk to the kids (or) yell at the kids."

Student Cody Hill, 17, who was in the crowd watching the fight, also said the cop Tasered the boy without warning.

It's not clear from the amateur video, with its imperfect audio, whether the officer gave a warning.

The onlookers spilled onto the street to watch the fight, many of them students at nearby H.B. Beal Secondary School.

Hill and a group of friends say they plan to hold a protest on Monday to decry the police response.

Police confirmed a 17-year-old who was Tasered was taken to hospital and another boy is in custody, but wouldn't comment if the officer issued a warning before using the stun gun.

"Our investigation is unfolding," said Const. Dennis Rivest. "There's a number of people that need to be interviewed right now and we still have a lot of work that we have to do to complete this investigation.”

The boy's injuries aren't life-threatening, police said.

"And we're going to wait before any further comment on the situation."

Canadian researcher Andrew Podgorski, who studied stun guns for the Canadian government, said youth are more at risk of injury and death from being hit with a Taser's 50,000-volt jolt.

"The younger you are, the more susceptible you are," said Podgorski. "Younger people are generally . . . smaller in size."

One in 1,000 people who get Tasered die, said Podgorski, adding those under the influence of drugs and alcohol are more likely to die.

According to use-of-force statistics, London police used stun guns 28 times in 2010.

In 2004, Londoner Peter Lamonday, 33, died shortly after being Tasered by police at a convenience store.

The faces of death

I have never seen, nor would I want to, any of the series of movies called "Faces of Death." But, I know of them and, as I watched the video of Robert Dziekanski dying before my very eyes, the thought of those movies flashed through my mind.

What has haunted me since then is that, had the world been witness earlier to others dying in much the same way as Robert did, he might be alive today. Had Canadians, in particular, been witness to the circumstances of the other 19 people who have died in Canada, perhaps we would have been repulsed into meaningful action. And perhaps some of those who have died would still be alive today.

What would we learn if we could see video of the last minutes of the lives of Terry Hanna, Clayton Willey, Clark Whitehouse, Ronald Perry, Roman Andreichikov, Peter Lamonday, Robert Bagnell, Jerry Knight, Samuel Truscott, Kevin Geldart, Gurmeet Sandhu, James Foldi, Paul Saulnier, Alesandro Fiacco, Jason Doan, Claudio Castagnetta, Quilem Registre, Howard Hyde and Robert Knipstrom?

Would we agree that taser use was justified during Clayton Willey's "altercation" at the mall? Were three taser jolts justified when Clark Whitehouse tried to flee from police on foot? What about when police arrived, tasers already drawn, to find Roman Andreichikov sitting on the couch, rocking back and forth mumbling to himself? Was it ok to shock Peter Lamonday several times when he was already on the ground? How about Alesandro Fiacco who "refused to cooperate with police?" These are only a few Canadian examples.

I know that if we could see the events leading to many of these deaths, we would finally learn precisely what happened - which may or may not jive with police accounts of the incidents. While I could not watch video of my brother's death, I do wish that others could. I know that most thinking Canadians would concur that the use of tasers was not only unjustified the night Bob died, but was likely unjustified in the majority of cases.

But seeing is believing and no one will ever get to see, for example, my brother on his back on a bathroom floor, unarmed and weighing 136 pounds - "resisting" police attempts to drag him out by holding onto inanimate objects for dear life. This while 11 trained police officers stood by as witnesses as two of their brothers in blue subdued Bob to death.

They say that after he was tasered, Bob continued to "resist." I contend that the "resistance" police often describe following taser shocks and which could be seen in the footage of Robert Dziekanski's death, is just the human body's way of resisting what it knows to be the final throes of death.

(I would not be surprised if, given the wide availability of the footage of Robert's death, it eventually ends up on a future installment of Faces of Death. I do hope that the lawyer for Robert's family pursues copyright protections on the video to prevent that from happening.)

Ontario coroner hit for taser link

November 6, 2007
By PATRICK MALONEY, SUN MEDIA, The London Free Press

Taser International paid for Jim Cairns' travel to its U.S. conferences - An expert who testified at a landmark inquest in London into police use of a Taser is under fire for his links to the stun gun manufacturer. Dr. James Cairns, the provincial deputy chief coroner who appeared at the 2005 probe of the death of Londoner Peter Lamonday, is facing criticism for having Taser International pay his travel expenses to lecture at their American conferences.

Although a Commons committee set to review Taser use will examine the relationship, the coroner's office is adamant there is no conflict of interest.

"He's not endorsing a product," Dr. Bonita Porter, Ontario's chief coroner, said yesterday. "He's showing what our experience is. It's not something we should discourage." Porter cited Cairns's testimony at the Lamonday inquest, held in May 2005, as evidence of his expertise.

One Liberal MP who sits on the public safety and national security committee that will examine Taser use in 2008 said Cairns's travel creates the perception of a conflict. "That's just highly improper," Ujjal Dosanjh said in an interview from Ottawa. "Any evidence that Dr. Cairns may have given -- and that's not to judge the evidence -- anything he said with respect to Tasers will be considered in light of the fact he's accepted the fare paid by Taser."

Lamonday, high on cocaine, was hit with a police Taser three times outside a Hamilton Road convenience store late on May 14, 2004. He died 50 minutes later in hospital. The inquest, held a year later, was the first to examine a Canadian death that followed the use of the powerful but controversial stun guns. In testimony, Cairns defended the use of Tasers and noted the timeline of that fateful night was proof the weapon wasn't responsible for the 33-year-old Lamonday's death.

"If you're going to die from an electric shock, you die when you get the electric shock, not minutes or hours later," Cairns told the jury. "Death cannot be attributed to the Taser if there is an interval between use and death." The inquest jury ruled Lamonday died of a cocaine-induced excited delirium and recommended more officers be armed with Tasers.

Cairns couldn't be reached yesterday, but in a recent interview, he made it clear he's remained impartial on the stun guns. "I am not an agent for Taser or anything else," he was quoted as saying. "I do not own Taser shares. I wanted there to be no conflict of interest." To Porter, having Taser pay Cairns's way to its conferences is to the benefit of taxpayers. "It saves the Ontario government paying the fare," she said. "There's a hysteria now about Tasers."

Lawyer says taser overused by police

October 22, 2007
KATHY RUMLESKI, London Free Press

A London [Ontario] lawyer isn't surprised to hear a 34-year-old Londoner suffered a heart attack after being tasered by police last week. Ron Ellis said yesterday he warned the province at two cases linking deaths to police tasers that there would be more tragedies. At an inquest in 2005, Ellis represented Cathy Colborne, the wife of Peter Lamonday, who died minutes after London police shocked him with the 50,000-volt taser during a rampage along Hamilton Road in 2004. The inquest found Lamonday's death was a result of a cocaine-induced excited delirium, but Ellis said he told those involved more deaths would result from taser use.

"I said, 'This is not the end. When this happens again, you're going to have to answer to it.' I've told that to several people, the coroners, crown and others."

In the last month, three men have died in Canada after being tasered. Ellis is pushing for an inquest into the July 2004 death of another London client's husband, Jerry Knight, who was tasered multiple times at a Brampton hotel.

Ellis is critical of the provincial coroner's office in the Knight case, saying it has failed to supply him with all the information about the death. "They keep telling me there's a backlog of cases, but that was 2004."

Coroner's office personnel could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Ellis said Knight had a small amount of cocaine in his system when he was tasered. The taser can be fatal if used on someone who is on drugs, has mental-health problems or is diabetic.

"I'm not anti-taser. I think they can be a very effective device, he said. "But they're over-utilized. (Police) are told it's a (quick) device to take people down safety. If the officers knew people could die from it, they wouldn't taser them."

Former NHL player Ryan VandenBussche said yesterday he feels lucky he wasn't seriously injured or killed when he was tasered several times by police at a Turkey Point bar.

"I don't really remember the occurrence, but after watching it on the news I felt very lucky because I was apparently tasered three times. They left marks on me," said VandenBussche, who lives in Vittoria, near Port Dover.

"They are obviously not the safest thing. They might want to do a little more research. You don't want anyone dying."

A constable has filed a lawsuit against VandenBussche, alleging he was assaulted during the incident. VandenBussche said the lawsuit is still outstanding.

Meanwhile the province's Special Investigations Unit continues to probe the circumstances surrounding the tasering of the London man at a residence last Monday.

A family member said Saturday the man -- whose name has not been released -- is recovering well in hospital. An update on his condition could not be obtained yesterday.

CANADA - Inappropriate and Excessive Use of Tasers

May 23, 2007
Amnesty International

Tasers safe for police to use, coroner says

May 4, 2005
CP

London, Ont. -- Tasers are safe and should be used even more frequently by Ontario police, a provincial coroner has told the inquest into a London man's death.

Since 2003, nine Canadians have died shortly after being shot by a police taser, but Dr. Jim Cairns said yesterday that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause any deaths -- including the death in May, 2004, of Peter Lamonday.

All nine people, Mr. Lamonday included, were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows that person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

Coroner Finds Man Didn't Die From TASER

May 3, 2005
The Globe and Mail

LONDON, ONT. - A man who died in police custody after being shot three times by a taser didn't die from the device, Ontario's deputy chief coroner told an inquest yesterday.

Had Peter Lamonday died in the parking lot where he absorbed the shots, the powerful stun gun could be considered responsible, Dr. James Cairns said.

But because the London man died some 50 minutes after taking on eight London police officers, the taser clearly didn't kill him, Dr. Cairns said on the opening day of the inquest into Mr. Lamonday's death May 14, 2004.

"This is the big question: Do tasers kill?" Dr. Cairns said of the popular weapons that temporarily stop attackers with a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity.

Last year the British Columbia Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the case of Robert Bagnell, a Vancouver man, who died last June after being stunned by a taser.

The report has not been released and late last month Mr. Bagnell's family demanded answers. They complained they have learned nothing, including the official cause of his death.

In London, Dr. Cairns told the jury: "If you're going to die from an electric shock, you die when you get the electric shock, not minutes or hours later.

"Death cannot be attributed to the taser if there is an interval between use and death."

A postmortem has ruled that Mr. Lamonday died of cocaine-induced excited delirium -- during which a person can feel no pain and exhibit incredible strength, but eventually crash.

Earlier, coroner's counsel David Carruthers told the jury that Mr. Lamonday, whose manner was described as "paranoid" by witnesses who saw him at a bar, smashed his head through the glass door of a nearby ceramics business and appeared unaffected.

The inquest, which is mandatory because Mr. Lamonday died in police custody, continues today.

Canada - Excessive and lethal force?

November 30, 2004
Amnesty International