Tasered man 'burst into flames'

July 21, 2009
BBC News

A man in Western Australia was engulfed in flames when police officers fired a Taser stun gun at him. The police say they used the Taser on Ronald Mitchell, 36, when he ran at them carrying a container of petrol and a cigarette lighter. They said that Mr Mitchell, who lives in a remote Aboriginal community, had been sniffing petrol. They suggested the cigarette lighter started the fire. Mr Mitchell is in critical condition in hospital with third degree burns.

Bare hands

The Western Australian police say they went to the community of Warburton, about 1,500 kms (950 miles) north of Perth, in response to a complaint. Mr Mitchell came out of the house, and they used the Taser when he refused to stop running towards them. Mr Mitchell burst into flames. One officer pushed him to the ground and smothered the fire with his bare hands, police said. His sister told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing petrol. "He must have put petrol on his face, then the policeman shot him with the Taser, that's when the flames happened," she said.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said Mr Mitchell was a known violent offender, and defended the police officers' use of the Taser weapon. He told reporters: "The only other choice they would have had is to use a police-issue firearm, and the consequences would almost certainly have been far more grave." He said the police internal affairs department would investigate the incident, saying there was "a very strong possibility that the fire was caused by the lighter in the hand of the offender".

Review call

Mr Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance. Mr Dennis Eggington, the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, called for an urgent review of Taser use. Aboriginal people, he said, were often in poor health, which made them particularly vulnerable to stun weapons and electric shock. A Taser works by firing two barbs which penetrate the skin and discharge 50,000 volts along two copper wires attached to the gun.

Amnesty International has called them "potentially lethal".

Constable admits errors in report on Hyde death

July 20, 2009
Oliver Moore, Globe and Mail

The unblinking eye of a surveillance camera provided crucial perspective again Monday at an inquiry into the treatment of a mentally ill man who died in custody, prompting another police witness to admit part of his report on the incident had been wrong.

Howard Hyde, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had not been taking his medication, died in jail the day after a fracas with Halifax Regional Police that involved being tasered twice. The inquiry into his death in November of 2007 heard yesterday the final testimony from the last of the officers involved in the first part of that struggle.

In a pattern that has become familiar through 10 days of testimony, Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer for Mr. Hyde's sister and her husband, was able to use surveillance footage from police headquarters to contradict the officer's account.

Mr. MacDonald said Constable Ben Mitchell had written in a report shortly after the incident that Mr. Hyde ignored several demands to comply with police. Shown the video, the officer acknowledged he'd been wrong. “After watching that I agree that's not the case,” he testified. “That's what I believed to be true.”

Constable Mitchell, who noted that he did not have the benefit of refreshing his memory with the video before doing his report, rejected Mr. MacDonald's suggestion that he had completed the paperwork in such a way as to justify the use of force.

Use of the videos has been among the most hotly debated issues at the inquiry.

Sandra MacPherson-Duncan, a lawyer for the police, has several times raised the concern that audio from the surveillance camera footage has been enhanced to remove background noise. This makes it unrepresentative of what the human ear would have heard at the time, she has argued.

But Mr. MacDonald said the video provides crucial evidence of what happened that night.

Mr. Hyde, had he survived, would have had great difficulty fending off charges of assaulting the police without the camera acting as a silent witness, the lawyer said.

“If the video did not exist … it would be a struggle for Mr. Hyde to defend against those four police witnesses, all saying what they're saying in those reports and notes,” Mr. MacDonald told reporters last week.

“Because it would be Mr. Hyde, who we know was not well mentally, defending himself against those charges.”

Provincial Court Judge Anne Derrick, who is presiding, has rejected applications to post the videos online, noting that they could be manipulated and that they need to be accompanied by witness testimony to be viewed in their proper context. They have been screened many times during the proceedings, though, and have been visible to people tuning in at www.hydeinquiry.ca.

Those screenings have at times revealed inaccuracies in notes or statements of those present during the struggle. All have denied the suggestion they were lying to justify their actions.

Former special constable Shannon Coombs, who witnessed the struggle but did not participate, wrote in her notes after the incident that Mr. Hyde ignored an order to “get down.” The video actually shows an officer shouting “get him down.”

That's an instruction to colleagues, Mr. MacDonald pointed out, not a demand for prisoner compliance.

“Yes, there is a major difference between what I wrote down I heard and what is in the video,” Ms. Coombs acknowledged last week.

Also last week, the inquiry heard that Constable Jonathan Edwards, the officer who arrested Mr. Hyde for allegedly assaulting his wife, told RCMP investigators after the prisoner's death that Mr. Hyde was warned he would be tasered and showed no concern about the weapon.

The video shows no such warning. In fact, the officer who tasered Mr. Hyde later testified that he deliberately did not warn the struggling man, to preserve the element of surprise.

N.S. inquiry told man showed 'incredible' strength before Tasering

July 20, 2009
Michael Tutton, Canadian Press

HALIFAX, N.S. - A Halifax police officer who helped wrestle a mentally ill man to the ground seconds before he was Tasered says the man had "incredible" strength and couldn't be forced onto his stomach using usual restraint methods.

Howard Hyde, 45, a Dartmouth, N.S., resident with a 20-year history of schizophrenia, died 30 hours later at a provincial jail.

Const. Ben Mitchell, one of the officers involved in restraining Hyde at police headquarters on Nov. 21, 2007, testified Monday at the fatality inquiry into Hyde's death.

The inquiry, which is examining the roles that police, health officials and corrections officers played, has been examining video of Hyde's restraint and Tasering, and asking police officers about their recollections.

The surveillance video played Monday showed Mitchell sitting at a booking desk in the downtown police station when he hears voices rising in the nearby fingerprint room.

The footage shows Mitchell looking for gloves. Suddenly, Hyde can be seen pushing past two other officers into the booking room.

Mitchell helps bring Hyde to the floor, then uses his knee to try to roll him onto his back as another officer, Const. Jonathan Edwards, also holds Hyde down.

Asked about the strength Hyde showed during the struggle, Mitchell responded: "It was incredible."

"Based on my experience, myself and Const. Edwards should have had no problem in restraining him."

At the time, Hyde wasn't wearing any clothes aside from a pair of shorts and Mitchell said there "was nothing to grab hold of."

"You can usually grab hold of a shirt, grab a coat. It's an easy way to get a hold of people. On top of that, he was also sweating profusely," said Mitchell.

Within seconds, the two officers move aside as a third officer, Special Const. Greg McCormick, fires a Taser into Hyde.

On the night he was Tasered, Hyde had been arrested for an alleged assault of his common-law wife, Karen Ellet. The inquiry has heard that Ellet had told police that Hyde was mentally ill and had not been taking his medications for weeks.

Hyde's escape attempt started after McCormick told him he had to use a serrated cutting tool to remove the string that was holding up his shorts - for his own safety.

Hyde was Tasered at least twice during the ensuing struggle, once in the booking room and again in a nearby hallway. Hyde died 30 hours later during a subsequent clash with correctional officers at the jail in nearby Dartmouth.

Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing two of Hyde's family members, questioned Mitchell's testimony, suggesting the officer's description of Hyde's strength was "just an easy way for you to justify the use of that Taser."

He asked Mitchell about why the initial Tasering was necessary, given that the officer had succeeded in keeping Hyde on the floor and had his full weight on him for several seconds.

Mitchell replied that he didn't feel he was successful in forcing the man to comply.

"We could not get control of him," he said. "We couldn't get him over on his side. We couldn't get his arms behind his back."

Later in the day, the officer read from a report he'd prepared after the struggle in which he described Hyde as seeming "to have the strength of 10 men."

The dramatic surveillance videotape shows Hyde struggling on the floor and shouting, "No! and "Sorry! and "What are you doing? "

MacDonald asked the officer why he didn't attempt to persuade the struggling man to regain his composure, and Mitchell said he was simply "busy" trying to get Hyde onto his stomach.

Mitchell wrote in his report after the incident that he had asked Hyde to give him his hands.

However, after viewing the video on Monday, Mitchell acknowledged he didn't ask Hyde to surrender his hands for handcuffing.

MacDonald suggested the officer had put the statement in his report to "justify the use of the Taser."

But Mitchell responded, "That's wrong." He said he simply hadn't recalled everything correctly before he saw the video.

The inquiry has heard that Hyde later fell unconscious in the hallway of the police station and had to be revived using CPR. He was later taken to hospital and discharged with a form that said he should get a forensic psychiatric examination.

That never happened.

Const. Michael Carter, the officer who applied CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, testified he accompanied Hyde to the hospital after he revived Hyde in the police station.

He recalled that Hyde was incoherent while he was with him at the hospital.

The officer said he was angry and distraught when he learned Hyde had been sent to a provincial jail and that he died there.

"I felt he was suffering from a medical crisis. His heart had stopped. I felt he should have been in hospital, but I'm not a doctor," he said.

Not warning of taser use part of training, officer says

July 18, 2009
OLIVER MOORE, Globe and Mail

Howard Hyde was tasered without warning because it was supposed to be a surprise, the officer who zapped him told an inquiry into the mentally ill man's jailhouse death.

Special Constable Gregory McCormick testified yesterday he used a slang term to alert officers grappling with Mr. Hyde in the booking room of Halifax Regional Police headquarters that he was about to use a taser.

But he deliberately did not tell the prisoner. The officer attributed this decision to training in the spring of 2007, six months before the incident, that included new instructions on tasering without warning.

"It's used for something that we call the surprise factor; telling him specifically that it was going to be done would defeat what I was trying to do," Special Constable McCormick testified.

Kevin MacDonald, the lawyer representing Mr. Hyde's sister and her husband, told reporters during a break in the proceedings that this tactic is not covered by the police force's taser policy.

"There's no mention of surprise at all. In fact, it mentions warning, where it's feasible," he told reporters. "I'm very interested in the training aspect of that, [that] you wouldn't want to warn someone to eliminate the notion of the surprise. I'm troubled by that."

The police officers involved in the altercation have testified they did not know their prisoner was a paranoid schizophrenic who had gone off his medication. They also say they were unaware Mr. Hyde claimed to have been tasered before and was afraid of police.

Several officers have recounted that Mr. Hyde was reasonably calm and co-operative until police moved to cut the knotted drawstring on his shorts.

The audio recording from a surveillance camera aimed away from the area indicates a rapidly escalating situation. Special Constable McCormick is heard saying something that sounds like, "We're just going to cut one of those balls off," which he explained yesterday was a reference to the knotted string.

"You have to consider Mr. Hyde's state of mind at the time," Mr. MacDonald told reporters later. "He hadn't slept in days, he was unmedicated. Who knows how that kind of a remark would impact him."

Spiking tension is evident on the audio recording. Voices rise and someone - the officers present have denied under oath it was them - says, "You're going to be doing the fucking dance next."

Seconds later, Mr. Hyde apparently tried to make a run for it. He was tasered repeatedly during a struggle that spilled from the booking room into a nearby hallway. He stopped breathing and had to be revived by police.

The 45-year-old musician died the next day in a Dartmouth jail.

Mr. MacDonald asked Special Constable McCormick why he had not done more to defuse the situation.

"It was already at the point where de-escalation verbally wasn't going to work," he replied. "Once you're in a situation like that ... you can't stop struggling with someone and hope that they'll stop as well."

Taser warning would have eliminated element of surprise in Hyde case: officer

July 17, 2009
The Canadian Press

HALIFAX, N.S. — A special constable who Tasered a mentally ill man who later died in custody says he would not always issue a warning when using the weapon because it would take away the element of surprise.

In testimony Friday at an inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde, Greg McCormick said it's also his experience that warning someone who is upset that they could be zapped could further anger them.

Given the speed with which things were happening early in the morning of Nov. 21, 2007, McCormick said he didn't have time to warn Hyde he was going to use the Taser.

"It's not appropriate because of something that we call the surprise factor, telling him specifically that it was going to be done would defeat what I was trying to do," he said.

Hyde, 45, who had schizophrenia and was off his medication, was Tasered in the booking area of Halifax police headquarters after he was arrested on a domestic assault complaint.

He died at a local correctional facility following a struggle with guards, 30 hours after he was Tasered repeatedly at the police station.

A scuffle broke out in the fingerprint room and booking area some time after McCormick approached Hyde with a cutting tool to remove a drawstring from his shorts.

The struggle ended up behind a desk in the booking area, where McCormick said there was no room to control Hyde's legs and roll him over onto his stomach to handcuff him.

There was also an exposed drawer in the area that had items in it that could be used as a weapon, including a mallet, a large butcher knife and scissors.

"I felt at that point he would do anything he needed to do to escape, so if harming us was part of that, I would say that yes, he would have done that," he said.

McCormick told the RCMP he felt he was under attack in an interview in the days after Hyde's death, something he didn't write in his notes on the incident.

He told the inquiry that Hyde pushed past him and Const. Jonathan Edwards and was running at another officer in the booking area.

"I would say that would be attacking, in a sense," he said.

Cop denies threatening Hyde before Taser used

July 17, 2009
By JEFFREY SIMPSON, Chronicle Herald

A police officer has denied threatening Howard Hyde shortly before Tasering the mentally ill man during a scuffle two years ago.

Special Const. Greg McCormick of Halifax Regional Police suggested Thursday it was actually Mr. Hyde who uttered a menacing remark captured by a surveillance camera while he was being booked for hitting his common-law wife on Nov. 21, 2007.

"It’s not me," Special Const. McCormick said of an enhanced audio recording played as he testified for the first time at an inquiry into Mr. Hyde’s death 30 hours after the Tasering.

Dan MacRury, the inquiry’s counsel, had questioned the officer about a comment made by someone just out of the camera’s view.

"Can you hear, ‘You’re going to be doing the effing dance next?’ " Mr. MacRury asked, substituting out the expletive.

"Who said that?"

Special Const. McCormick ruled out his own voice, adding "I’d have to say Mr. Hyde."

Mr. MacRury pointed out that remark hadn’t been noted in any official reports or other paperwork about the incident.

"Nowhere in documents do you say Mr. Hyde was swearing at you," Mr. MacRury said.

Special Const. McCormick said he hadn’t remembered hearing it.

"It certainly wasn’t something that stuck out in my mind," he said.

The officer said he didn’t consider it a direct threat to himself, but acknowledged it was threatening.

Joanna Blair, Mr. Hyde’s sister, said outside the Halifax courtroom where the hearing is being held that the threatening words didn’t sound like they came from her brother.

"What I heard in that line with the ‘effing’ and ‘dancing’ remark in my opinion was not my brother’s voice," she said.

"I’m sure because I would have recognized my brother’s voice."

At the time the scuffle broke out, Special Const. McCormick had just taken out a tool with a closed 10-centimetre serrated blade to remove the drawstring from Mr. Hyde’s shorts.

A barely distinguishable comment on the audio recording — that Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing Mr. Hyde’s sister, interpreted as, "We’re just going to cut one of those balls off" — apparently refers to a knot at the end of the drawstring.

Mr. Hyde became agitated at that point as Special Const. McCormick and two of his colleagues — all of whom are over six feet tall and weigh more than 200 pounds — struggled to subdue him. The struggle ended in a nearby hallway, where Mr. Hyde’s heart stopped before police revived him with CPR.

Special Const. McCormick acknowledged that he wrote his supplemental report about the fracas before writing his notes, which he characterized as a summary of his official document.

Mr. MacDonald pointed out people usually jot down their notes beforehand and refer to them later for the official report.

"You seem to have it in reverse," Mr. MacDonald said.

Special Const. McCormick said he hadn’t been trained about note-taking but believed the information he wrote that night was extensive compared with some of his other accounts.

"As far as my notebook goes, I’m not sure what goes there," he said, and at another point, "It’s not something that I really know what I should be doing."

Mr. MacDonald asked Special Const. McCormick on Thursday whether he also made another barely distinguishable comment on the recording when the 45-year-old musician arrived at the police station and was talking to the officers.

"I hear ‘Shut up,’ " Mr. MacDonald said.

"Did you say that?"

Special McCormick replied that he certainly didn’t.

He said he and his two colleagues had little choice other than to use a stun gun on Mr. Hyde as they wrestled with him on the floor of the booking room, within reach of a drawer of weapons that included a butcher knife and screwdriver.

The officer shot the stun gun a first time at Mr. Hyde, but it had little effect, he said.

"I put it right between his shoulder blades," he said.

The electric current is supposed to lock up a person’s muscles, but Mr. Hyde was flailing about so much he managed to stand up and somehow redirect the weapon back on Special Const. McCormick.

"I certainly felt the shock," he said. "If you watch the video I move back quickly."

After Mr. Hyde jumps over a desk and fled to a nearby hallway, Special Const. McCormick used the stun gun on him again.

The officer said he felt responsible when he heard the next day Mr. Hyde had died. The event troubled him so much he went for counselling, he said.

"All you could think from the media was that the Taser had killed him," he said.

The fatality inquiry is examining how police and correctional officers handle mentally ill people and is trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

Jury makes recommendations in Beamsville man's death

July 16, 2009
KARENA WALTER, ST. CATHARINE'S STANDARD

Training for police in the use of Tasers should include courses with "judgment scenarios," a jury from a coroner's inquest has recommended to the province.

The jury, which heard evidence over seven days about the death of 39-year-old James Foldi of Beamsville, made seven recommendations Wednesday, adopting or modifying six suggestions from lawyers.

They also determined Foldi's death was an accident, caused by acute cocaine toxicity leading to sudden cardiac death, in the setting of excited delirium.

That cause was modified from a pathologist's ruling that Foldi died from excited delirium due to acute cocaine poisoning.

A lawyer for Foldi's family had argued excited delirium in itself was not a cause of death.

Foldi died July 1,2005, around 3:35 a. m. after going through a tear in his Beamsville neighbourhood. Jurors heard he seemed "out of it" and ran into three homes that night, waving his arms, calling for help and leaving a trail of blood.

Police tried using a Taser in probe mode and pepper spray to control Foldi and eventually tackled him to the ground next to a garage, where he had jumped through a window to get outside.

He was again Tasered on the ground in the stun mode several times and handcuffed, when he suddenly stopped breathing.

Juries are not obligated to make any recommendations at the end of an inquest.

Jurors in the Foldi case made recommendations directed to Niagara Regional Police, Niagara Emergency Medical Services and the ministries of Health and Community Safety and Correctional Services.

They included a suggestion to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services that Taser qualification and annual re-qualification training courses also include "judgment scenarios."

The recommendation was not suggested by any of the lawyers, but during the inquest, jurors heard that the province is currently coming up with a new training model for police using Tasers.

The ministry was also told it should promptly distribute any updated or new information from an excited delirium study to police services.

It was also recommended the ministry equip police supervisor vehicles with portable automatic external defibrillators and that other appropriate personnel receive training to properly use the defibrillators.

That recommendation, made by the lawyer for Foldi's family, was not supported by the NRP's lawyer, who argued in court that officers are not medical personnel.

The ministry was given a fourth recommendation that product warning and training materials for use of force options and equipment, including Tasers, is promptly distributed to all appropriate police members.

During the inquest, the jury heard that an e-mail bulletin from Taser International on June 28, 2005, sat in a police officer's inbox while he was on holiday and wasn't distributed to other officers until August that year.

Other jury recommendations: The Ministry of Health and Health and Welfare Canada should make sure all reasonable efforts are made to alert the public to the dangerous effects of cocaine.

NRP and EMS should continue to work together in developing communications protocols aimed at prompt ambulance response.

NRP should review its general order dealing with use of force to ensure it reflects any product warnings and training memoranda for use of force options and equipment, including Tasers.

Mentally ill man didn't utter threats before he was Tasered: officer

July 16, 2009
The Canadian Press

HALIFAX, N.S. — The special constable who zapped a mentally ill man with a Taser says Howard Hyde did not utter any threats to him but he decided to use the weapon because officers couldn't control him during a struggle.

Special Const. Greg McCormick - who was working as a booking officer on Nov. 21, 2007 - told an inquiry Thursday that Hyde appeared scared when he was approached with a tool to cut a drawstring from his shorts at Halifax police headquarters.

Hyde backed up and asked what the police were doing when he was approached with the tool in the booking area.

McCormick said Hyde couldn't get the drawstring out of his shorts because it was knotted at the ends, so they were going to use the tool, which has a 10-centimetre, curved serrated blade on it.

McCormick said the blade on the tool was closed and he was going to use a second, shorter cutting edge to cut the string.

"He seemed scared," he said. "The look on his face, to me it was the look of scared. At first he backed up asking what we were doing and we reassured him we were only cutting off the lace."

After backing up, McCormick said Hyde came toward the officers and pushed past him and Const. Jonathan Edwards. The special constable said he doesn't remember whether he had his cutting tool out at that point.

Video surveillance shows Hyde flailing as two other officers try to handcuff him after they spilled from the booking area and ended up on the floor behind a desk. It was then that McCormick reached for the Taser.

McCormick said near where Hyde was struggling with police was an exposed drawer with tools in it, including knives.

Hyde was zapped with the Taser repeatedly by McCormick before officers got control of him in a nearby hallway after he jumped over a desk and fled.

As they gained control of Hyde, McCormick said he couldn't find a pulse on him so officers began CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

When he regained consciousness, Hyde expressed his fear and McCormick said he tried to reassure him that he was OK.

"I felt breath and then I looked at Mr. Hyde's face, and at that point it was unlike anything I had ever seen, it was like his colour came right back, it's almost like he woke up, it was like a big breath," he said.

"We're trained to reassure someone who has just been through something like that, so I am telling him everything is fine and that he'll be fine."

"And all that I can remember him saying to me specifically is that he was scared."

The 45-year-old Hyde - who had schizophrenia - died at a correctional facility in Dartmouth after a struggle with guards, 30 hours after he was Tasered. Police arrested Hyde after his common-law spouse alleged he had assaulted her at their apartment in Dartmouth.

The fatality inquiry is examining the circumstances surrounding Hyde's death.

Police officials have previously acknowledged their testimony of what happened that night conflicts with statements they made to the RCMP in the days after Hyde was Tasered.

RCMP's lawyer quits Taser inquiry

July 16, 2009
CBC News

A lawyer who failed to disclose a controversial email has quietly resigned as the Mounties' legal counsel at the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death, after RCMP in B.C. jolted him with a Taser stun gun in 2007.

Helen Roberts withdrew from the Vancouver-based Braidwood inquiry in June and was replaced by another lawyer from the federal Department of Justice.

The change came after Roberts made a tearful apology at the inquiry for failing to disclose an RCMP email that suggested the four Mounties who responded to a call to Vancouver International Airport made plans to stun Dziekanski with a Taser before they saw him.

Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died in the airport's arrivals lounge in October 2007 after being stunned.

Roberts had said the failure to disclose the email was an accidental oversight.

Before the email was revealed, the four officers had stated under oath that they had not discussed using the stun gun before arriving at the airport.

The email, from RCMP Chief Supt. Dick Bent to assistant commissioner Al McIntyre, said that: "Finally, spoke to Wayne and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW."

The "Wayne" mentioned in the email is Supt. Wayne Rideout, then head of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team investigating Dziekanski's death. CEW refers to a conducted energy weapon, the RCMP name for a Taser-type weapon.

Roberts gave a tearful apology, saying it was simply an accidental oversight.

Her admission brought new suspicions of a coverup and caused a costly three-month delay to the inquiry on the day it was to begin winding down.

The commission had been scheduled to begin hearing closing arguments on June 19, but after learning of the email, commissioner Thomas Braidwood announced the inquiry would resume on Sept. 22 to allow commission lawyers time to review the email and conduct an investigation.

Art Vertlieb, the inquiry lawyer, said Roberts is only partly responsible for the embarrassment she suffered.

"The simple fact is the RCMP should have produced that document months and months before," he said.

Although Roberts had spent more than a year on the inquiry, Vertlieb said her replacement should be able to catch up by the time the inquiry resumes.

A request to the Department of Justice for an interview with Roberts went unanswered. In a written statement the department said Roberts asked to withdraw from the inquiry. In a separate statement the RCMP said it had no role in her departure.

Lawyer challenges officer's Taser testimony

July 15, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

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

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

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

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

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

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

EDITORIAL: Sponsorship conflict

Dear John Jones, former ETHICS ADVISOR to the CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE, who resigned earlier this year - in part - over the conflict of interest posed by Taser International's sponsorship of the CACP conference:

Although Taser International has been a PLATINUM (the most generous and prestigious sponsorship level of all) sponsor of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police's annual conference over many years - and, in fact I have highlighted the conflict of interest this poses here on my blog every year since it first came to my attention - I am VERY pleased to advise you that your personal decision to resign may in fact have FINALLY had an impact. As of today, less than a month away from the conference (August 9-12, 2009) Taser International is nowhere to be found on the list of sponsors for the 2009 CACP conference in Charlottetown, PEI. Nor do they show up anywhere on the Exhibitors' List.

Thank you, John Jones - it's still early days, but you were already on my list of heroes and that will never change. This can't have been an easy decision for you, but here's living proof that your decision to resign was the right one.

I repost the Globe and Mail editorial from April (see below), for those who aren't already in the know.

Sincerely,
Reality Chick (owner of this blog)

April 13, 2009
Globe and Mail

The foundation of taser use in this country rests on an obvious conflict of interest, and involves a group that should know better: the police chiefs of Canada. The resignation of an ethics adviser to the chiefs over that conflict speaks volumes about the rotten state of police discourse on the 50,000-volt stun guns.

"Doesn't pass the smell test," John Jones said of the chiefs' corporate sponsorships, including one from Taser International, of their annual conferences. The chiefs' board of directors was so dismissive it wouldn't even hear from the ethics committee when it asked formally for a meeting about the conflict.

Why do police in Canada - with the notable exception of the RCMP Commissioner William Elliott - have the chutzpah to insist that the taser is safe, even though more than 20 people have died in the past five years after being tasered? Because the Canadian Police Research Centre, an arm of the chiefs' association, says that research indicates it is safe. The chiefs do not directly set policy for the 170 forces across Canada that use the taser, but the association's research is in practice the basis for many of the country's taser policies.

Taking sponsorship money from a weapons manufacturer is a direct, not merely a perceived, conflict. The chiefs have received $75,000 over the past three years from Taser International, according to the chiefs' executive director, Peter Cuthbert. Everything the chiefs say about the taser is tainted by their acceptance of that money. More than that, the policies of all the police forces that rely on the chiefs' research are tainted.

The truth about the taser's potential harm is far from settled, except in the minds of the chiefs. Yet most police policies allow for taser use where no serious risk of physical harm to anyone is involved. (It is emphatically not used instead of guns, as many people think, including Canada's Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.) Only the RCMP acknowledges a risk of death, especially for agitated individuals.

Six weeks ago, as a judicial review in British Columbia probed the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, a distressed, unarmed man who had been waiting 10 hours at the Vancouver International Airport for his mother, the police chiefs and the Canadian Police Association released a position statement on tasers: Not one of the 13 points raised a safety concern. Nothing about multiple taserings. Nothing about uses on the mentally ill or youth or people with heart problems or taking drugs. Then the chiefs called for a vast expansion of taser use.

John Jones is right. Something stinks about the chiefs' coziness with Taser International.

Officer changes story over copying report and giving man Taser warning

Has anyone checked to see if this officer has perhaps gone off his meds? The way his story keeps changing makes me think perhaps HE's the mental-health patient. And imagine this: Constable Edwards is being subdued by lawyers whose only weapons are words and good old-fashioned common sense. I find it unbearably sad that Howard wasn't offered those alternatives.

July 14, 2009
By Alison Auld, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX, N.S. — A Halifax police officer said Tuesday he copied parts of a report on a Tasering incident from another officer involved in the melee, which is at the centre of a inquiry into the death of a mentally ill man.

Const. Jonathan Edwards conceded after days of questioning at the inquiry that he had taken portions of a supplemental report prepared by Special Const. Greg McCormick, who was also at Halifax police headquarters when Howard Hyde was brought in for booking.

Edwards testified a day earlier that he had not read his colleague's account of what happened on Nov. 21, 2007, the night the 45-year-old schizophrenic was repeatedly Tasered by police at the station.

But under questioning by police lawyer Sandra MacPherson Duncan, Edwards said he did lift passages from the internal report.

"It appears you may have borrowed a couple of sentences from Const. McCormick," MacPherson said to Edwards at the fatality inquiry.

"Yes," he concurred.

The report recounts some of the events from the night Hyde was arrested for allegedly assaulting his spouse. It was one of three accounts Edwards made that night, including his police notes.

Outside the court, MacPherson Duncan downplayed the significance of his testimony, saying the evening was stressful and no one can be expected to be flawless.

"You cannot hold anybody to a level of perfection that would require instant recollection," she said.

She added that no one had ever told Edwards not to collaborate on the report and that there were no discrepancies in the internal report and his personal police notes.

But Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer for Hyde's family, said the change in testimony raises questions about the officer's independent account of what happened.

"It did surprise me," he said outside the court. "It just calls into question his independent recollection of events."

Edwards spent the day reviewing surveillance footage that captured Hyde being Tasered. He died 30 hours later after a struggle with guards at a correctional facility in Dartmouth.

Edwards also conceded that he didn't know why he told the RCMP Hyde was warned twice that he was about to be Tasered at police headquarters. He said the surveillance video from the station appears to indicate no such warnings were given as Hyde fell to the ground in a struggle with several officers.

In a statement to the RCMP on Nov. 25, 2007, Edwards said a booking officer warned Hyde that a Taser was going to be used on him unless he co-operated with police.

Edwards said he can't explain why he would have told the RCMP a warning was given because he had watched the video before making his statement to the Mounties.

"That (Taser warning) didn't occur," he said. "At the time I must have thought that's what was said, but I don't recall seeing that in the video."

MacDonald suggested Edwards made the statement because he was trying to justify the use of the Taser on Hyde.

"If Mr. Hyde wasn't complying with the Taser demand ... that would justify the use of force," he said.

MacPherson Duncan disagreed.

"I'm having a problem with propositions being put without foundation, because the propositions are scandalous," she said.

"The problem I have is there is no suggestion in any of this that this officer was required to justify the use of force to the RCMP."

MacPherson Duncan said the statement taken by the RCMP was intended to assist the coroner and wasn't taken to investigate the behaviour of the officers involved in Hyde's arrest.

The stun gun was used as several officers struggled with Hyde in the booking area of police headquarters. Edwards has testified that the short, heavy-set man was enough of a threat to at least three young officers that they had to deploy the powerful weapon.

The inquiry has also heard audio from a room where officers were fingerprinting Hyde. The officers allegedly came at him with a utility tool that had a 10-centimetre curved, serrated blade, to remove a string from his shorts.

Edwards has testified that the blade wasn't drawn, but someone can be heard in the audio shouting what sounds to be an obscenity-laced threat.

Seconds later, the officers and Hyde tumble into the booking area, where Edwards asks if McCormick has a Taser just as the latter is reaching for one in a desk drawer.

Officer used colleague's material for paperwork, taser inquiry hears

July 14, 2009
OLIVER MOORE, Globe and Mail

The officer who arrested Howard Hyde acknowledged Tuesday that he used a colleague's material to prepare paperwork after the mentally ill man was tasered, reversing testimony from yesterday at a fatality inquiry.

Halifax Regional Police Constable Jonathan Edwards said Monday that he had “not accessed” his colleague's supplemental report. He wrote his own supplemental, he said, after accompanying Mr. Hyde to hospital. This was about an hour after Special Constable Gregory McCormick, who actually used the taser on Mr. Hyde, prepared his report.

Questioned about the numerous similarities between their accounts, Constable Edwards suggested Monday it was a coincidence.

On Tuesday, though, he was questioned by police lawyer Sandra MacPherson-Duncan. After establishing that officers aren't graded on their creative writing, and that he wouldn't ever copy a colleague's notes, she returned to the issue of cribbing the other report.

“Are you satisfied now that you did?” she asked.

“Yes,” Constable Edwards said.

During a subsequent break in proceedings the officer said he could not comment further.

Ms. MacPherson-Duncan minimized the reversal, saying that mistakes are made. Perfection cannot be expected of police officers, particularly after such a stressful event, she said.

Earlier Tuesday, Constable Edwards testified Tuesday that he had been mistaken when he said the mentally ill man was warned before being tasered.

Constable Edwards gave a statement to the RCMP on 25-November, 2007, three days after Mr. Hyde died in custody in a Dartmouth jail.

In that statement, he described the booking room fracas that involved Mr. Hyde being tasered repeatedly by another officer and ended with the 45-year-old stopping breathing and having to be revived in a hallway.

Prompted by Kevin MacDonald, the lawyer for Mr. Hyde's sister and her husband, Constable Edwards acknowledged the warning mentioned in his statement was not reflected in surveillance video from the scene.

“I watched the video just before giving the statement. I don't know why I would have said that,” the officer said.

Mr. MacDonald suggested that Constable Edwards had been trying to establish a justification for the tasering, prompting an objection from a lawyer for the local police.

“The proposition is scandalous,” said Ms. MacPherson-Duncan. “There's no suggestion that this interview [with the RCMP] was probing justification for use of force.”

Provincial Court Judge Anne Derrick, who is presiding over the inquiry, allowed the line of questions to continue.

Asked again, Constable Edwards noted that the officers didn't have to give a warning and that he didn't have to justify his actions to the RCMP.

Jurors deliberate on Beamsville Taser death

July 14, 2009
KARENA WALTER, St. Catharine's Standard

Jurors at an inquest into the death of a Beamsville man high on cocaine who was Tasered several times are being asked to recommend that police be trained to identify excited delirium.

The lawyer for James Foldi’s family told jurors Tuesday it was clear the 39- year-old man was suffering extreme distress before he was tackled, Tasered and subsequently stopped breathing in a laneway July 1, 2005.

“It’s a shame that nobody tried to calm Mr. Foldi,” Ian Brisbin said in closing submissions to the jury in St. Catharines. “There is no evidence police officers took any steps whatsoever to calm him down.”

But the lawyer representing the Niagara Regional Police Service said officers are trained to detect excited delirium and there was no evidence they require more training.

Sara Premi asked jurors to consider what was happening the night Foldi was arrested: It was dark and he was unresponsive to police commands, was covered in blood and had been involved in a home invasion.

She said it was the job of police to get Foldi under control for the safety of neighbourhood residents.

“You would expect nothing less for your safety and your family’s safety.”

Lawyers finished their arguments Tuesday. Jurors will continue to deliberate on a cause of death and potential recommendations today.

Jurors have heard police were called to the Beamsville neighbourhood of Village Park Drive and Crescent Avenue around 2:30 a.m. after reports of a man breaking into homes and calling for help.

One officer who came face-to-face with Foldi said he was covered in blood and his eyes were wide, like “something out of a horror movie.”

Police caught up with Foldi after he ran into the bungalow of strangers and began yelling in a bedroom. One officer testified he told Foldi, “We’re trying to help you. Get down on the ground” but Foldi jumped out a open window.

Police then confronted Foldi in a garage where he was pounding on a car with his fists. Again Foldi ran and jumped out a window, this time through a pane of glass.

Police tried to Taser him twice with the gun in the probe mode and used pepper spray, but said Foldi kept running.

A violent struggle between officers and Foldi ensued next to the garage, where Foldi was taken to the ground and Tasered in the stun mode as he continued to struggle. Police said soon after he was handcuffed, he stopped breathing.

A pathologist found the cause of death was excited delirium from acute cocaine poisoning.

But Brisbin asked jurors to find that the cause of death was sudden cardiac death from ventricular fibrillation.

He also asked jurors to recommend that police not allow individuals to remain in the prone position longer than necessary and that police carry defibrillators in their vehicles.

Foldi, who was a large man, was Tasered several times and was lying handcuffed, face down with an officer’s foot between his shoulder blades, Brisbin said. He said that asking jurors to accept Foldi’s breathing wasn’t compromised would be asking them to ignore common sense.

But Premi said there was no evidence that positional asphyxia played a role in Foldi’s death. There was also no evidence that defibrillators were needed in cruisers, she said, adding police are not paramedics.

Lawyer David Pickering, representing the Niagara Region Police Association, said Foldi’s use of cocaine was the driving force that night.

“Don’t criticize police for responding, when you’ve caused the need for response,” he said.

Pickering said the abuse of cocaine affected Foldi’s mental state.

“It was his abuse of cocaine that caused the struggle,” he said. “You think officers wanted to struggle?”

Four other suggested recommendations were made to jurors jointly by all the lawyers.

They included that the NRP and Emergency Medical Services continue working together to get prompt ambulance service, that the NRP quickly notify members of product warnings, such as those from Taser International, and that police review a general order dealing with use of force. They also recommended that the Ministry of Health have more public education about cocaine use.

Officer mistaken about taser warning, inquiry hears

July 14, 2009
OLIVER MOORE, Globe and Mail

The police officer who arrested Howard Hyde testified Tuesday at a fatality inquiry that he had been mistaken when he said the mentally ill man was warned before being tasered.

Halifax Regional Police Constable Jonathan Edwards gave a statement to the RCMP on 25-November, 2007, three days after Mr. Hyde died in custody in a Dartmouth jail.

Inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde

In that statement, he described the booking room fracas that involved Mr. Hyde being tasered repeatedly by another officer and ended with the 45-year-old stopping breathing and having to be revived in a hallway.

Prompted by Kevin MacDonald, the lawyer for Mr. Hyde's sister and her husband, Constable Edwards acknowledged the warning mentioned in his statement was not reflected in surveillance video from the scene.

“I watched the video just before giving the statement. I don't know why I would have said that,” the officer said.

Mr. MacDonald suggested that Constable Edwards had been trying to establish a justification for the tasering, prompting an objection from a lawyer for the local police.

“The proposition is scandalous,” said Sandra MacPherson-Duncan. “There's no suggestion that this interview [with the RCMP] was probing justification for use of force.”

Provincial Court Judge Anne Derrick, who is presiding over the inquiry, allowed the line of questions to continue.

Asked again, Constable Edwards noted that the officers didn't have to give a warning and that he didn't have to justify his actions to the RCMP.

Police officer says mentally ill man was given a Taser warning during struggle

July 14, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX, N.S. — An inquiry into the death of a mentally ill man heard today that Halifax police warned him he was going to be shot with a Taser.

Reading from a statement he gave to the RCMP after Howard Hyde was Tasered on Nov. 21, 2007, Const. Jonathan Edwards says he remembers the booking officer telling Hyde he was going to use the stun gun if he didn't co-operate.

Edwards says there was no time to take the cartridge out of the weapon and fire an electrical arc to warn Hyde because he was acting violently as he was being booked at police headquarters in Halifax.

Hyde, a 45-year-old schizophrenic, died 30 hours after he was shocked with the stun gun.

Edwards has testified that the short, heavy-set man was enough of a threat to at least three officers at the police station that they had to use the Taser.

The fatality inquiry is examining the events surrounding Hyde's death.

Police were called to his apartment in Dartmouth after his common-law spouse alleged he had assaulted her.

He died at a correctional facility after struggling with guards.

Officer denies he doctored his report in tasering death

July 14, 2009
Oliver Moore, Globe and Mail

A police officer involved in the tasering of paranoid schizophrenic Howard Hyde could not explain why so much of his report was essentially identical to one written earlier by a colleague, but denied the suggestion he had "doctored" it.

The inquiry into the jailhouse death of Mr. Hyde also heard yesterday an allegation the unco-operative prisoner was sworn at during a rapidly escalating situation at police headquarters and told he would be "doing the ... dance next."

An altercation broke out immediately after and Mr. Hyde, who had been off his medication and acting erratically before his arrest, was tasered repeatedly. He died 30 hours later in a Dartmouth jail.

The inquiry into the November, 2007, death began hearing witnesses last week. Halifax Regional Police Constable Jonathan Edwards, the arresting officer, was on the stand all day yesterday.

Constable Edwards was one of many officers involved in the struggle that broke out during the booking. The fracas ended with the 45-year-old prisoner not breathing and having to be revived in a hallway. After he had accompanied Mr. Hyde to hospital, Constable Edwards returned to the police station to write up the incident.

A lawyer for Mr. Hyde's sister and her husband questioned the officer again and again yesterday about numerous similarities between his account and one drafted an hour earlier by Special Constable Gregory McCormick, the man who actually used the taser on Mr. Hyde.

"I am going to suggest today that you went in and used and doctored Special Constable McCormick's statement to create your own," Kevin MacDonald said. "These are identical words, they're his words ... you used his words."

Constable Edwards repeatedly denied having cribbed his colleague's report.

The inquiry also walked through the lead-up to the tasering, with Constable Edwards offering new details on the alleged risk posed by Mr. Hyde.

He testified that the booking room struggle brought the prisoner within reach of a drawer full of knives and other weapons. The drawer was unlocked and the one immediately above it was missing, he said, allowing a clear view of these weapons.

The prisoner received his first tasering seconds later.

Constable Edwards acknowledged that his notes or other paperwork do not include mention of concern over Mr. Hyde arming himself during the struggle. The officer explained the late revelation by saying he had a lot on his mind in the aftermath of the incident.

It was not clear why weapons were stored in an accessible drawer, though Constable Edwards said that is no longer the practice.

Also heard for the first time was his allegation that Mr. Hyde had earlier tried to reach for a cutting tool held by another officer, who intended to sever the drawstring of the prisoner's shorts.

That was not recorded by surveillance cameras, but some audio around the alleged incident was captured. It was then, during the rapidly building tension, Mr. MacDonald suggested, that one of the officers told Mr. Hyde he would be made to "dance."

Police quickly turned to Taser, inquiry hears

July 13, 2009
By JEFFREY SIMPSON, Chronicle Herald

Halifax Regional Police threatened a mentally ill man, then almost immediately Tasered him during an altercation and later doctored a report about the scuffle, a lawyer alleged Monday at an inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde.

Enhanced audio from a surveillance camera in the booking room of police headquarters on Gottingen Street was played Monday for the first time at the inquiry in Halifax.

The altered recording — in which background music playing in the booking room at the time was removed so dialogue could be heard better — captures what sounds like a police officer’s menacing comment to Mr. Hyde, possibly about using a Taser on him, just before the men come crashing into the camera’s field of vision.

“What I hear is someone saying, ‘You’re going to be doing the effing dance next, Howard,’” Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing Mr. Hyde’s sister and her husband, repeated after the sound clip, using a benign substitute for the actual expletive.

Mr. MacDonald suggested the voice belonged to Special Const. Greg McCormick, who Tasered Mr. Hyde in the scuffle that followed.

Mr. Hyde died 30 hours later while still in custody after struggling with correctional officers at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

The 45-year-old musician had been arrested early in the morning of Nov. 21, 2007, while wearing only his boxer shorts. His common-law wife had reported that he had hit her at their Dartmouth apartment.

Mr. Hyde, who had schizophrenia and hadn’t been taking his medication for weeks, was initially calm and co-operative after the arresting officer, Const. Jonathan Edwards, now 23, took him to police headquarters.

But a scuffle broke out between Mr. Hyde and three officers — Const. Edwards, Special Const. McCormick and Const. Ben Mitchell — while he was being booked, and he was jolted with the stun gun seconds later.

Mr. MacDonald questioned why the three officers, each of whom is over six feet and 200 pounds, would grapple with the smaller Mr. Hyde for only two seconds before resorting to the Taser.

The lawyer said Special Const. McCormick did little to help regain control of Mr. Hyde, who was on the floor apologizing, before reaching for the Taser as soon as Const. Edwards suggested it.

“We can see that he did nothing — he didn’t lay a hand on him,” Mr. MacDonald said.

“He goes right for the Taser.”

Mr. Hyde somehow got away from the officers after being Tasered, jumped a desk and darted into a hallway that led to an exit. The camera monitoring the booking room picked up some audio from the adjacent area as the officers caught up to Mr. Hyde.

“Did you hear someone say to Mr. Hyde, ‘Shut your effing mouth’ when he’s in that hallway?” Mr. MacDonald asked Const. Edwards, again substituting for the swear word.

But the inquiry was unable to listen to any further audio from that part of the scuffle because the rest of the audio recording from the booking room video is missing.

Also unaccounted for are about 30 minutes of surveillance footage of Mr. Hyde in a holding cell before the fracas.

There is grainy video of what happened in the hallway as officers struggled to put handcuffs on Mr. Hyde and so-called zap straps on his legs.

Mr. Hyde’s heart stopped beating at some point during that part of the scuffle. He lost consciousness and police revived him using CPR before paramedics arrived and took him to hospital.

Mr. MacDonald suggested that if the three police officers had tried working together to regain control of Mr. Hyde without resorting to the Taser, they might have been successful. Mr. Hyde had his hands up at one point and apologized throughout the melee, the lawyer said.

Mr. MacDonald pointed to several passages in Const. Edwards’s report on the altercation that were identical to those in the report filed by Special Const. McCormick, who wrote his an hour earlier.

“I’m going to suggest today that you went in and used and doctored McCormick’s statement,” Mr. MacDonald said to Const. Edwards.

“These are identical words — they’re his words.”

Mr. MacDonald told reporters outside the courtroom that at least half of Const. Edwards’s report matched that of his colleague.

“I don’t know why they would do that,” he said.

“It’s a significant issue and they have to be able to justify what they’ve done.”

Const. Edwards said he didn’t recall looking at his colleague’s report before writing his own, and he asserted that his written account matches his recollection of events.

Mr. Hyde apparently started to resist the officers when they produced a utility tool with a serrated blade to cut the drawstring of his shorts, in keeping with rules for the lockup.

Const. Edwards told the inquiry for the first time on Monday that Mr. Hyde had reached for the tool, contradicting another report that Mr. Hyde had pulled away.

“I’m very skeptical to see that come out at this late stage,” Mr. MacDonald said of the new information.

Just before the scuffle, Const. Edwards can be heard on the surveillance recording telling Mr. Hyde to “take a seat there, Bud.”

“You seem to have frustration in your voice,” Mr. MacDonald said while questioning the officer.

Const. Edwards said he wasn’t frustrated and defended how quickly he and his fellow officers resorted to using the Taser. He said Mr. Hyde was overpowering them and was next to an unlocked drawer containing knives, scissors, screwdrivers and a sledgehammer.

“He was beyond control,” Const. Edwards said.

“He may be saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ but his legs and body are saying, ‘I’m getting up.’”

Const. Edwards said he couldn’t tell who was swearing in the surveillance video but was certain it wasn’t himself.

“I don’t believe swearing at prisoners is appropriate,” he said.

“Sometimes it does happen.”

The inquiry is examining how police and correctional officers handle mentally ill people and is trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

Taser inquest resumes in Beamsville death

July 13, 2009
Posted By KARENA WALTER, Sun Media

Ontario is looking into a new training model for police officers to keep them at arm’s length from Taser International, a coroner’s inquest heard Monday.

The province’s officers use training techniques from the manufacturer of the stun gun, but that could change, said Chris Lawrence, an expert from the Canadian Police Research Centre on use of force and excited delirium.

“Smith and Wesson don’t provide training on firearms. General Motors doesn’t show officers how to drive,” he told the jury in the case of James Foldi, who was Tasered during a 2005 struggle with police.

Lawrence said the training group, put together by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and of which he is a part, met a couple of times last week and will gather again in August to design scenarios used in training.

They want to instruct Ontario officers how the Taser should be used, as opposed to it coming from instructions from the United States, he said.

Lawrence said there has been some criticism about relying on the manufacturer on how to use the Taser appropriately.

“Just to let the public know, we’re not just taking what the manufacturer said and not thinking for ourselves.”

Lawrence, a former police officer and use-of-force trainer, was the last person to testify in the Foldi case, which wrapped up evidence Monday after a six-week scheduling delay.

Foldi, 39, died July 1, 2005, after a bizarre night of breaking into houses in Beamsville, calling for help and at one point jumping through a glass window.

A pathologist ruled his death was caused by excited delirium brought on by acute cocaine posioning.

The coroner’s jury has heard from the officer who deployed the Taser that it was used twice in the probe mode when Foldi was running. It was applied another five times on stun mode to Foldi’s calves and thighs while he was struggling with officers on the ground.

Another four discharges of the Taser, recorded by the device, are unaccounted for.

Coroner’s inquests are mandatory when someone dies in police custody.

Lawrence, who wrote a report about the Foldi matter, testified he concluded the officers’ actions were consistent with prudent police practice.

He told Sara Premi, the lawyer representing the NRP, that police need to gain control of a person in an excited delirium state so the person can get medical treatment.

He said there are cases where people still die in that state without being Tasered.

{THAT LINE OF THINKING HAS BEEN SHREDDED TO PIECES MANY TIMES OVER AT WWW.EXCITED-DELIRIUM.COM}

The jurors will hear closing submissions from lawyers today and will decide whether or not to make recommendations in the case.

Lawrence said the training group has done a lot of groundwork over the last year and started an instruction manual.

When asked if the Foldi case would be used as a training scenario, Lawrence said it’s consistent with other events, but any examples will be generic.

Tony Brown, a spokesman for the ministry reached later by phone in Toronto, said the ministry is conducting a study with policing partners on the Taser. Operational and policy considerations in relation to training are being discussed, he said.

Brown said the study is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Teen who says she was injured by Mountie stun gun sues RCMP in Manitoba

July 13, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

WINNIPEG — A Selkirk, Man., woman who says RCMP repeatedly zapped her with a Taser is suing the Mounties.

The woman, who was 16-years-old at the time, says she and her friends were pulled over by police looking for a stolen car in 2007 and brought to the Selkirk detachment.

In her statement of claim, the woman says she was put in a cell and repeatedly Tasered by male police officers who taunted her.

The woman is seeking unspecified damages, alleging that the police action was unjustified and has left her with permanent scars on her legs and an inability to go to work or school.

The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court.

The RCMP has not yet filed a statement of defence.

Officer testifies that Hyde reached for weapon as he struggled with police

July 13, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX, N.S. — A Halifax police officer testifying today at a fatality inquiry says a man who died 30 hours after being Tasered reached for a cutting tool as they were booking him.

Const. Jonathan Edwards says Howard Hyde became agitated in the early hours of Nov. 21, 2007, at police headquarters as they were trying to remove a string from his shorts with the device.

Edwards says a four-inch serrated blade on the tool was not drawn, a fact disputed by a lawyer for Hyde's family who says the 45-year-old schizophrenic became agitated and struggled with officers when he saw the device.

The inquiry is examining the events surrounding Hyde's death and saw a video last week showing police Tasering him multiple times as he called out that he did nothing wrong and was sorry.

Edwards also says there was an unlocked drawer full of knives and other weapons in the area where officers wrestled with Hyde.

But the officer failed to mention either fact in his police notes or reports, and also claimed that he didn't hear colleagues say over the radio just before he arrested Hyde that he was "very mentally unstable."

Officer recalls new details at inquiry

July 13, 2009
Halifax — Globe and Mail Update

The officer who arrested Howard Hyde told a fatality inquiry into the paranoid schizophrenic's death that he now remembers new details concerning the threat posed by his prisoner shortly before he was tasered.

The mentally ill man had been off his medication for weeks and he was acting increasingly erratic. Arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife, the 45-year-old was tasered more than once during a fracas in the booking room of police headquarters.

He died 30 hours later in a Dartmouth jail after a fight with guards.

Halifax Regional Police Constable Jonathan Edwards told an inquiry into the death that the booking room struggle with Mr. Hyde brought the prisoner inches away from a drawer full of knives and other weapons. The drawer was unlocked and the one immediately above it was missing, he testified, giving Mr. Hyde a clear view of these weapons.

He received his first tasering seconds later.

Click here to view proceedings and archives

Constable Edwards acknowledged that concern over Mr. Hyde arming himself during the struggle had not been mentioned in his notes or in subsequent statements he'd made. It emerged for the first time today, during his second day of testimony.

The officer explained the revelation by saying he had a lot on his mind during and after the incident and he might simply have forgotten.

Also emerging was Constable Edwards' recollection that Mr. Hyde had tried to reach for a tool that officers intended to use to cut the drawstring of his shorts. This part of the incident was not captured on surveillance cameras. The altercation at police headquarters broke out immediately after.

Constable Edwards testified that Mr. Hyde was too strong to be restrained by three officers. After being tasered, the prisoner leapt over a waist-high counter and ran into a nearby hallway that led out into the parking lot. He was stopped there within reach of the door, Constable Edwards said.

The taser was used in the hallway as well. Mr. Hyde stopped breathing there and had to be revived with chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. He was checked into hospital and lodged in a local jail. He died there the next day, following a struggle with guards.

Hyde: 'What are you doing?'

July 11, 2009
By JEFFREY SIMPSON, Chronicle Herald

Howard Hyde was being booked at Halifax Regional Police headquarters for hitting his common-law wife when he broke free of three officers, vaulted a desk and ran for an exit, a surveillance video shows.

"I didn’t do nothing," Mr. Hyde shouted as he wrestled with the officers.

The recording from November 2007 (the Tasering occurs at about the 43-minute mark) was played in a Halifax courtroom Friday, as Mr. Hyde’s sister watched, during a fatality inquiry. Mr. Hyde died in police custody 30 hours after the video was shot.

The 45-year-old musician was so strong that police felt they had little choice but to Taser him without warning as they fought to regain control of the situation, one of the officers told the hearing.

"There was no time," Const. Jonathan Edwards said, explaining that the confined area didn’t allow officers to use other measures such as batons or pepper spray.

As a sombre country song, Three Wooden Crosses, droned in the background, the black and white footage showed the booking desk at the police station as Mr. Hyde, just off-screen, apparently started to resist officers.

Const. Edwards said police were about to use a tool resembling a jackknife to cut the drawstring to his boxer shorts — the only clothing Mr. Hyde was wearing when he was arrested early in the morning of Nov. 21, 2007 — in keeping with rules that forbid prisoners from having belts, shoelaces and other such items while locked up.

"He looked a little jumpy," Const. Edwards said before the recording was played. "It didn’t seem like he wanted that to happen."

The only officer initially in the camera frame during that segment leaped off-screen for an instant before crashing back into view with two other officers as they grappled with Mr. Hyde, who throughout the fracas shouted apologies and denied wrongdoing.

One of the officers got a stun gun from a drawer and there was a low staccato crackling sound as he fired it more than once at Mr. Hyde, who shrieked.

"Ow!" Mr. Hyde yelled at one point. "What are you doing?"

Then Mr. Hyde somehow slipped away, jumped over the desk and ran through a door into a hallway leading to a rear exit of the police station. The three officers chased him.

Another camera without audio captured the scene in the hall as the officers wrestled for several more minutes with Mr. Hyde, who was on the floor.

The video shows more police arriving and at some point Mr. Hyde’s heart stopped and he lost consciousness. CPR was used to revive him and then paramedics took him to the hospital.

Const. Edwards rode in the back of the ambulance that day and told the courtroom Friday that Mr. Hyde was flailing his arms around in such an agitated state that the driver stopped to make sure everyone was OK.

The officer said not all the blasts from the Taser worked to their full extent on Mr. Hyde.

"You cannot speak if you’ve been properly Tasered," he said.

Mr. Hyde had been Tasered before but Const. Edwards said he didn’t know that at the time. Still, he said, that knowledge wouldn’t have made him do anything differently.

"I reacted to his behaviour," Const. Edwards said.

"I would have done the same thing in that situation again."

Const. Edwards told the inquiry he doesn’t believe the mentally ill should be added to a list of people who can’t legally be Tasered, a list that includes the elderly and people with disabilities.

Const. Edwards had arrested Mr. Hyde at his Dartmouth apartment that morning after Mr. Hyde’s common-law wife, Karen Ellet, reported that he’d hit her and was schizophrenic. Mr. Hyde had been arrested several times in the past, with many of those incidents related to his mental health.

The fatality inquiry is examining how police and correctional officers handle mentally ill people and is trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

Before the struggle at the booking desk, Mr. Hyde was captured on video talking amicably with police.

"I know you guys are good cops," he said, although he alludes to having problems with some "bad apples."

The recording also shows Mr. Hyde pacing in a holding cell for well over 10 minutes.

"Audio and visually, it’s very disturbing," Mr. Hyde’s sister, Joanna Blair, said after watching the surveillance video in the courtroom.

Dan MacRury, the inquiry counsel, told reporters the video speaks for itself.

"It gives a clear picture of how the police acted on that occasion," he said.

"We’re trying to bring all the evidence forward at this inquiry to give a complete picture of what happened to Howard Hyde."

Mr. MacRury said the inquiry is intended to determine if further policies are needed, not to place blame. But it’s too early to tell if any changes are required, he said.

Mr. Hyde, after being cleared to leave the hospital, was taken to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, where he spent the night. He lost consciousness the next morning while struggling with correctional officers again and was declared dead in hospital at 8:42 a.m.

Hyde’s mental health had cop radios buzzing

July 10, 2009
By JEFFREY SIMPSON, Chronicle Herald
Halifax police officers were told before arresting a man who died 30 hours after being Tasered that he was mentally unstable and acting aggressively.

On Thursday, an inquiry into the death of Howard Hyde heard 12 minutes of radio communications between dispatchers and officers responding to a domestic dispute call from the man’s common-law wife on Nov. 21, 2007.

The recording indicates that Karen Ellet told Const. Brad Jardine at her apartment that Hyde was schizophrenic and had hit her before fleeing from the fourth-floor balcony.

"He’s arrestable for assaulting his wife and he’s very mentally unstable, so heads up," the Halifax Regional Police officer said on his police radio after another officer spotted Mr. Hyde outside a few minutes later wearing only boxer shorts.

The dispatcher also told police that the call for help had come from the mobile crisis unit, which Ms. Ellet had contacted initially that night to get mental health help for Mr. Hyde.

"There’s a male in the background being very aggressive with her," the dispatcher told the officers.

The fatality inquiry is examining how police and corrections officers handle mentally ill people and trying to determine what happened to Mr. Hyde.

Ms. Ellet explained to Const. Jardine after Mr. Hyde was arrested that her common-law husband hadn’t been taking his medication regularly and that he was afraid of being Tasered again by police. But Const. Jardine didn’t pass that information along to the officer taking the 45-year-old musician to the police station for booking.

Const. Jardine said after police arrested Mr. Hyde, his demeanour had calmed significantly from when they heard him yelling inside the apartment before he fled, so he didn’t believe the man was having a mental health episode.

"There was no speaking in tongues or any irrational thought process," Const. Jardine said, adding later in the day that, "I expected a much different person downstairs."

So police decided to take Mr. Hyde to the station for booking instead of the hospital for a doctor’s assessment.

Mr. Hyde tried to escape at the station after officers approached him with a knife-like instrument to cut the drawstring from his shorts and he was Tasered twice.

The jolts stopped his heart and he was revived by CPR before being taken to the hospital. The inquiry, which is being webcast on the Internet, is expected to be able to view as early as today the scuffle recorded by surveillance cameras at the station.

After being called to the hospital, Const. Jardine noticed that Mr. Hyde’s heart rate at one point spiked to 200 — way above normal — as he rested in bed, but a nurse assured him things were fine. Mr. Hyde was chatting coherently with the officer before going to sleep.

But Const. Jardine said he was surprised to learn Mr. Hyde was later cleared to leave the hospital, despite his heart issues.

"He was where he was supposed to be, in my mind," he said.

Mr. Hyde was taken to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, where he spent the night. He lost consciousness the next morning while struggling with correctional officers and was declared dead in hospital at 8:42 a.m.

"I was really upset," Const. Jardine said. "I told him everything would be OK when I left the hospital."

Const. Jardine couldn’t recall any mental health training he received while attending police academy or a four-week orientation course he took after being hired, but he said he has had a lot of experience dealing with people with such issues.

Still, police are overworked due to a lack of resources, he said. "We have to do the best with what we have."

Const. Jardine’s partner, Const. Gyles Gillis, said he didn’t recall hearing the "significant information" about Mr. Hyde’s mental state on the police radio at the apartment building.

"It wouldn’t have changed the way we handled the call," Const. Gillis said.

Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer representing Mr. Hyde’s sister and her husband at the inquiry, said any officer who had contact with Mr. Hyde had the option of taking him for a psychological assessment by a doctor who could have hospitalized the man.

"He should have received treatment and that’s one of the questions we want addressed," Mr. MacDonald said outside the courtroom where the hearing is being held.

"A mistake was made."

Hyde showed ‘tremendous strength' in struggle: officer

July 10, 2009
Halifax — The Globe and Mail

The police officer who arrested Howard Hyde told a inquiry into the paranoid schizophrenic's jail-house death that the man was showing “tremendous strength” in a struggle with several officers, forcing them to taser him.

Halifax Regional Police Constable Jonathan Edwards, who said that Mr. Hyde had been calm and collected before an altercation erupted in the booking room, testified that he had no idea his prisoner was mentally ill and off his medication. He had confirmed receiving that information over the radio, he acknowledged Friday, but said he hadn't heard the whole message.

The officer said that his 45-year-old prisoner became “antsy” as they moved to cut the drawstring of his shorts. A violent fracas ensued that quickly drew in other officers. Constable Edwards testified that he ran through various options as they grappled on the floor, rejecting chemical spray and his baton as unsuitable. Fearing they were losing the battle, officers moved to a taser.

Mr. Hyde was zapped several times – the exact number remains unclear. After he had been manhandled into a “restraint chair” officers noticed that he had stopped breathing. He was revived and checked in hospital before being lodged in a Dartmouth jail.

He died in the jail, approximately 30 hours after being tasered, during a struggle with guards. It is unclear if they knew his mental condition.

The flow of information has already emerged as a key issue at the Hyde inquiry, which began hearing witnesses this week.

Computer records showing Mr. Hyde's troubled history were not accessed by the officers rushing to respond to a domestic abuse call by his wife. He fled when they arrived and she told them about his mental illness, and that he was erratic and not taking his medications. One of the responding officers did not think to pass on the information. The other did, but Constable Edwards apparently did not hear it.

Halifax police knew man they stunned was unstable, inquiry hears

July 9, 2009
CBC/The Canadian Press

An inquiry into the case of a man who died in police custody 30 hours after being hit with a Taser heard that Halifax police were told repeatedly that he was mentally unstable, behaving aggressively and had been zapped with a stun gun earlier.

The inquiry looking into the death of Howard Hyde heard 10 minutes of grainy radio communications between several officers who were responding to a domestic abuse call from his common law spouse on Nov. 21, 2007.

The recording indicated his widow told one officer that Hyde suffered from schizophrenia and was acting violently.

Const. Brad Jardine testified Thursday that Karen Ellet told him in a brief conversation at her Dartmouth apartment that Hyde was mentally ill, had hit her and had tried to flee the building before by jumping off the balcony.

Jardine then radioed his colleague, who was pursuing Hyde after he fled the building when he learned police were responding to a complaint he had assaulted Ellet.

"Yes, he's arrestable for assaulting his wife, and he's very mentally unstable, so heads up," Jardine said on the radio after his colleague spotted Hyde walking slowly outside in only his shorts on the cold November night.

The dispatcher's call to officers also indicated that the initial request for help came from a mental health agency that Ellet had called that night — another clue for police that they were dealing with a man who likely had some form of mental disorder.

Lawyers in the fatality inquiry are paying close attention to the flow of information about Hyde and whether officers should have sent the 45-year-old man to hospital for psychiatric treatment instead of to the police station after his arrest.

Testimony has shown that police learned from Ellet's statement that he was schizophrenic, had been off his medications for weeks and had been acting erratically.

But they didn't pass that information on to other officers who were booking Hyde at headquarters, where he struggled with police as they tried to remove his shorts with the help of a tool that had a serrated blade.

Police then Tasered him twice, briefly stopping his heart and rendering him unconscious.

Almost an hour passed between the time Ellet finished her statement and when Hyde was zapped with the stun gun.

When asked why he didn't tell colleagues Hyde was schizophrenic, Jardine said he didn't think he was having a mental health episode at the time because he was calm during the arrest.

He also said he didn't think it necessary to take him to the hospital immediately, though he admitted he had that option.

Const. Gyles Gillis, who was working with Jardine that night, testified he couldn't remember hearing his partner's radio communication referring to Hyde's mental stability as he raced out of the apartment building to apprehend Hyde.

"When you went down to that parking lot, you knew just one thing — that this fellow was mentally unstable. Do you agree?" Kevin MacDonald, a lawyer for Hyde's family, said in court.

"No, I do not," Gillis said.

Jardine also testified he was called to the hospital where Hyde was being treated following the initial Taser jolts.

He said Hyde seemed lucid as they chatted about music and sports but that his heart rate spiked to what he thought were unusual levels even as he slept.

Jardine said he was so concerned he asked medical staff, who assured him Hyde was alright. He later said he was surprised that Hyde had been medically cleared to leave hospital to face charges related to the scuffle at police headquarters.

Jardine said he was upset when he learned Hyde had died, explaining he had told the musician before leaving at the end of his shift that "everything would be OK."

The inquiry has also focused on the amount of training police receive on dealing with people with mental health issues.

Treatment of mentally ill also part of Hyde story

July 8, 2009
By MARILLA STEPHENSON, Chronicle Herald

THE TRAGIC death of Howard Hyde is one more event that has brought public attention to police officers’ use of stun guns, but the death of the mentally ill Dartmouth man while in custody in 2007 is about much more than that.

A public inquiry into Hyde’s death began this week in Halifax and is expected to hear from as many as 100 witnesses. It was preceded by debate over whether to allow security camera footage of Hyde, while in the custody of Halifax Regional Police and in a confrontation with guards at the provincial jail in Dartmouth, to be posted on the Internet.

Inquiry chairwoman Judge Anne Derrick has ruled that the video footage, which reportedly shows police Tasering Hyde and his subsequent death the next day, will not be made available for Internet posting, but the footage will be shown as part of evidence being submitted at the inquiry, which is available by live and archived webcast.

Earlier this year, the RCMP announced new restrictions on the use of Tasers, primarily in response to the high-profile death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver’s airport in October 2007. The Polish man, who did not speak English and had spent hours alone wandering the arrivals terminal, died at the airport after he became disruptive and the RCMP shocked him multiple times with a Taser.

Hyde’s death occurred the next month. Thirty hours after regional police Tasered him, Hyde died during a struggle with guards at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility. The medical examiner later ruled that his death was caused by excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia, from which he had suffered for some time.

A subsequent review said correctional officers had followed proper procedures, but a public outcry over Hyde’s treatment in custody led to the public inquiry — as it well should have.

While the use of the stun gun to subdue Hyde is part of this story, the justice system’s treatment of people with mental illnesses is just as significant an issue.

Hyde’s widow, during a long day of testimony on Tuesday, told the inquiry that she had told police that Hyde suffered from schizophrenia and needed mental health treatment.

After he was taken into custody following Karen Ellet’s 911 call from their Dartmouth apartment, she said she contacted the correctional centre to indicate he needed medical help but was told staff could not help because of confidentiality rules.

Much of Ellet’s testimony on Tuesday dealt with Hyde’s condition on the night of Nov. 21, 2007, her own interactions with police and other agencies leading up to and including that evening, and some discussion about his mental illness. He had stopped taking his medication in the weeks before that fateful evening.

But in perhaps the most touching testimony she gave, Ellet also talked about Hyde when he was well, during their good times together. She spoke of a happy, lively man with whom she shared a peaceful, simple life.

Asked if he had discussed his mental illness in detail with her, Ellet responded, "No, he didn’t. I didn’t really ask because I knew him when he was well, initially. I didn’t see the schizophrenic side of him until he was off his medications."

She said he loved sports, music and nature. They enjoyed walks on the beach and along country roads, she said, adding that Hyde much preferred the country to the city.

"He was a joy to be around," she said. "He was a very likable man."

There will be much important testimony in the weeks ahead and it will surely help Derrick to chart a path toward recommendations that will lead to better treatment for the mentally ill when they are taken into custody.

But Tuesday’s testimony was among the most important because it served as a reminder that Hyde — when well — was a happy, contented and peaceful man. In a province where the story of mental health patients being woefully underserved is growing frustratingly repetitive, Hyde’s story will hopefully bring better results for those who follow him.

At this point, that’s as much as we can offer the late Howard Hyde.

N.S. police officer didn't tell others that Tasered man was mentally ill, off meds

July 7, 2009
By Alison Auld, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX, N.S. — A Halifax police officer didn't tell colleagues that a man who had just been arrested was schizophrenic, had been off his medications for weeks and had been acting violently, a fatality inquiry heard Tuesday.

Const. Giles Gillis, who was responding to a domestic assault call, testified at the hearing into the death of Howard Hyde that the man's common-law spouse told him he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had assaulted her.

He was also informed that Hyde, a 45-year-old musician with a 20-year history of mental illness, had stopped taking three types of anti-anxiety and psychosis medications and was delusional.

Still, Gillis admitted not conveying the critical information to other police officers who took Hyde to a lockup in Halifax on Nov. 21, 2007, where he was repeatedly Tasered after struggling in the cells.

When asked by lead counsel Dan MacRury why he didn't tell the officers about Hyde's condition, Gillis replied: "I don't know."

"Why didn't you radio the police station after getting the statement?" MacRury asked at another point in the testimony.

"Were you not bothered by the fact that you knew he was schizophrenic and off his medications and he had been Tasered?"

Gillis said he believed he was following proper procedure and that Hyde was in the most appropriate place since a judge would decide later in the day if he should undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The probe is trying to determine what happened to Hyde after he was arrested and then died in a correctional facility 30 hours after being Tasered. It will determine whether Hyde received adequate care from police, correctional officers and health officials.

Karen Ellet, Hyde's spouse and the hearing's first witness, testified that she told officers her violent, incoherent husband was mentally ill and needed medical help the night he hit her with a telephone.

But the Nova Scotia woman said he did not get the help he so badly needed.

The soft-spoken woman said she called a help line for those facing mental health emergencies when Hyde became very aggressive, at one point holding her wrists and striking her on the side of her face with a telephone.

"I realized he needed some medical help," she told the inquiry in a quiet but steady voice. "He was pacing back and forth and hollering. He was incoherent. ... I couldn't make out what he was saying."

The court heard a recording of the 911 call Ellet made later that night, during which she told the operator in a hushed tone that Hyde was "going to become violent."

When police arrived at the couple's home in Dartmouth, Hyde had fled their apartment by climbing over the balcony and down the side of the four-storey building. It was a cold night and he was dressed only in a pair of shorts and had no shoes.

Ellet told the officers that Hyde was terrified of being Tasered because he had been hit with an electric jolt from a stun gun during an earlier confrontation with police.

She said she later learned that Hyde had been arrested, but when she called the correctional centre to let them know he was ill, she was told staff couldn't help because of concerns over confidentiality.

"I really wanted him to be in the hospital and get the proper medical treatment that he needed for his psychosis."

Gillis also said he did a background check on Hyde when he returned to his office, but could find nothing on the man despite a lengthy history that included 11 criminal charges and several involving mental health issues.

Gillis, who claimed to have trouble recalling several details from the incident, also said he couldn't remember whether Hyde was warned before he was struck with the powerful stun gun.

MacRury questioned why Gillis didn't have him sent to a hospital for an immediate psychiatric evaluation rather than into police custody.

Gillis said he didn't think Hyde was exhibiting signs of mental illness, even though he was babbling incoherently when he was apprehended.

After being Tasered twice and rendered unconscious, Hyde was revived by CPR and taken to hospital. Later that morning, he was taken to the Dartmouth jail, where he spent the night.

The next morning, he fell unconscious again after struggling with correctional officers trying to restrain him in a holding cell. He was declared dead in hospital at 8:42 a.m.

During her testimony, Ellet also confirmed that Hyde had hit her on the head with closed fists only two weeks earlier when he became irate in a nearby parking lot about her refusal to get a ride home by hitchhiking. She said she did tell police about the incident.

As well, Ellet said she had earlier approached Hyde's doctor about his worsening condition, but could only talk to the physician's secretary. Nothing came of that meeting, she said.

When Hyde was taking his medication, he was a warm man with a passion for music and sports, Ellet said.

"He was a very fantastic person," she said. "He was very caring of people. ... He was just an incredible man."

The provincial medical examiner concluded Hyde died of excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia.

Police Chief tasers teen in the head!!!

UPDATE: July 7, 2009
Jennifer Smith, KFDA

According to a press release from the City of Tucumcari, City Manager Bobbye Rose has placed Police Chief Roger Hatcher on administrative leave pending an investigation regarding a recent tasing incident. The city has contracted with an independent firm to conduct the investigation.

July 4, 2009

A Tucumcari [New Mexico] girl is recovering in an Albuquerque this evening after being shot in the head with a taser by the police chief.

Stacy Akin says she and her 14-year-old daughter were arguing so she drove to the police department for help.

Police Chief Roger Hatcher says the girl ran off, but he then found her in a park.

When he got out of his car to call her, he says she ran in front of it across a street without looking.

He says he had no choice but to fire his taser to stop her.

The girl remains in pediatric intensive care after surgery.

Mentally ill N.S. man needed help, wife tells public inquiry into his death

July 7, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX, N.S. — Karen Ellet says she told two police officers her violent, incoherent common-law husband was mentally ill and needed medical help the night he hit her with a telephone.

But the Nova Scotia woman told a public inquiry Tuesday into Howard Hyde's death that the 45-year-old musician, who died a day after he was Tasered while in police custody, did not get the help he so badly needed.

Ellet was the first witness to testify at the inquiry, which will determine whether Hyde received adequate care from police, correctional officers and health officials.

The soft-spoken woman said she called a help line for those facing mental health emergencies on the night of Nov. 21, 2007, when Hyde became very aggressive, at one point holding her wrists and striking her on the side of her face with a telephone.

"I realized he needed some medical help," she told the inquiry in a quiet but steady voice. "He was pacing back and forth and hollering. He was incoherent ... I couldn't make out what he was saying."

The court heard a recording of the 911 call Ellet made later that night, during which she told the operator in a hushed tone that Hyde was "going to become violent."

Dan MacRury, lead counsel for the inquiry, asked Ellet why she was speaking in such a low voice to the operator.

"I didn't want Howard to hear me on the phone because he would get more aggressive," she told the inquiry, led by provincial court Judge Anne Derrick.

When police arrived at the couple's home in Dartmouth, Hyde had fled their apartment by climbing over the balcony and down the side of the four-storey building on a cold night, dressed only in a pair of shorts and no shoes.

Ellet said she told the two officers that Hyde had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had not taken his medication for weeks and needed medical help.

As well, she told them that Hyde was terrified of being Tasered because he had been hit with an electric jolt from a stun gun during an earlier confrontation with police.

She said she later learned that Hyde had been arrested, but when she called the correctional centre to let them know he was ill, she was told staff couldn't help because of concerns over confidentiality.

"I really wanted him to be in the hospital and get the proper medical treatment that he needed for his psychosis."

Hyde, whose long history of mental illness was known to police, was Tasered twice when he made two attempts to escape from the police station that night.

Rendered unconscious, he was revived by CPR and taken to hospital. Later that morning, he was taken to the Dartmouth jail, where he spent the night.

The next morning, 30 hours after he was Tasered, he fell unconscious again after struggling with correctional officers trying to restrain him in a holding cell. He was declared dead in hospital at 8:42 a.m.

During her testimony, Ellet also confirmed that Hyde had hit her on the head with closed fists only two weeks earlier when he became irate in a nearby parking lot about her refusal to get a ride home by hitchhiking. She said she did tell police about the incident.

As well, Ellet said she had earlier approached Hyde's doctor about his worsening condition, but could only talk to the physician's secretary. Nothing came of that meeting, she said.

At the time, Hyde was taking two medications to treat his schizophrenia and high anxiety. Ellet said he was sometimes delusional, believing he was related to royalty.

"He was very psychotic," she said.

When Hyde was taking his medication, he was a warm man with a passion for music and sports, Ellet said.

"He was a very fantastic person," she said. "He was very caring of people. ... He was just and incredible man."

At the conclusion of her testimony, MacRury asked Ellet is she though Hyde received the "professional help" he needed.

Ellet said she believes Hyde should have been stabilized and transferred to a psychiatric hospital that night. Instead, he was sent to the Halifax police station and to the jail in Dartmouth.

"He needed psychiatric treatment," she said.

The provincial medical examiner concluded Hyde died of excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia.