See other Dead Constitution Articles
Title: Police baffled by Taser death at Vancouver airport
Source:
Reuters Canada
URL Source: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/ne ... RTRIDST_0_CANADA-TASER-COL.XML
Published: Oct 15, 2007
Author: Reuters
Post Date: 2007-10-15 14:03:30 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 154
Comments: 7
Police baffled by Taser death at Vancouver airport Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:57 AM EDT OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian police are still trying to work out why an agitated passenger died at Vancouver airport after he was hit by two blasts from a Taser stun gun, a spokesman said on Monday. The unidentified foreign man, who arrived on an international flight on Sunday, showed signs of distress in the customs area. He started shouting in an eastern European language, pounded on windows, threw chairs and shoved computer equipment on the floor. Police attempted to restrain the passenger and blasted him twice with a Taser when he refused to calm down. He died shortly after being handcuffed. "We don't have the ... cause (of death)," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre told CBC television from Vancouver, British Columbia. "Based on our review of the B.C. coroner's service and past cases where individuals have died following the use of a Taser, what we've seen is they are usually due to a pre-existing medical condition or the use or abuse of legal or illegal drugs. The Tasers have not contributed to the actual death." Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward, who has studied incidents involving Tasers, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that 16 Canadians had died in the last five years after being hit by the 50,000-volt electrical charge the weapon generates. Lemaitre defended the use of Tasers, saying the number of people in the customs area ruled out the use of pepper spray. Using metal truncheons was also out of the question because that could have been interpreted as an excessive use of force. He said police hoped to be able to identify the man by the end of Monday. Tasers are manufactured by Taser International Inc, based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#3. To: aristeides (#0)
Akezys says: "Recently police at the Vancouver airport were attempting to question a recent immigrant that could not speak English. They tasered him after 24 seconds of speaking with him. The man had spent 10 hours stuck in the airport with no-one helping him." They had arranged to meet at the baggage carousel in the international terminal at YVR.... Mr. Dziekanski arrived at about 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14. "He made his way to primary customs in the ordinary fashion … he went through there in the normal time frame … he then proceeded through and was directed to secondary customs, which is normal for someone who doesn't speak English and is immigrating to the country," Mr. Kosteckyj said. His papers were in order and he proceeded without difficulty. But what happened after that was far from normal. For nearly 10 hours, Mr. Dziekanski stayed in the Arrivals Hall, growing increasingly frustrated and eventually becoming frantic. Outside, in the public area, his mother spent nearly six hours pacing the corridors and, in broken English, asking airport officials for help in locating her son. Mr. Kosteckyj said she visited one booth in international arrivals "at least three to four times and conveyed to them that she was concerned about her son being in the area and she wanted to get a message to him and how could she do that? They wrote her name down and said that they would make inquiries." At about 10 p.m., she was told he wasn't there. She made the long drive home, only to find a phone message waiting, saying her son had been found. "She called back to immigration when she got in, which would have been around 2 a.m., and spoke to someone there and was advised that her son was somewhere in the area and was fine. And she advised, you know, 'Please take care of him because he can't speak English and I'll get there as soon as I can.' And of course he had died, been killed really, some time on or about 1 or 1:30," Mr. Kosteckyj said.
My 80 y.o. Dad Arrested-We are Safer Now.
Oh for gawds sake.. this is outrageous!
I haven't flown in years. I'm not tempted to, unless it's to leave the country.
#7. To: aristeides (#6)
(Edited)
Ive flown a few times in the last year.. and will no doubt do it again in the near future.. but its not as it once was to say the least.. I remember the first time I went to an airport soon after 9/11 .. it was frightening really.. there were armed soldiers in uniform walking around the airport.. I felt as if I were in a foreign country. The problem is ..where is there to go?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestMore on the story..
The 40-year-old construction worker, who had never left Poland before, was immigrating to Canada to join his mother, 61, who lives in Kamloops, about a five-hour drive from Vancouver.
#4. To: Zipporah (#3)
#5. To: aristeides (#4)
#6. To: Zipporah (#5)
Replies to Comment # 6. I haven't flown in years. I'm not tempted to, unless it's to leave the country.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.