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Taser Questions Still Unanswered
Inquest into Surrey man's death probes police tactics.
A series of crime stories got big play in a couple spots today. The Globe led with the sentencing of a pair of brutal child rapists in Ontario. And went below the fold in the BC section with jail times for some lower mainland kidnappers.
Stories on crime-stoppers were also big. CBC, among others, follows on a VPD internal investigation. Police are investigating four officers for “possible assault, assault causing bodily harm, abuse of authority and conduct unbecoming an officer” after another officer tipped his superiors to a photo of the alleged posing with their victim.
Meanwhile, in Burnaby, a coroner’s inquest into the death in custody of a 40-year-old father continued with testimony from his wife of 20-years. Gurmit Singh Sundhu was hit with a Taser, pepper spray and even police boots before losing consciousness and dying in his Surrey home last June.
Crime stories like these hinge on events - sentencing, investigations, inquests – but they raise questions too. Questions about police procedure, sentence length and other core justice issues.
The problem is, when there is no event to hook a news story on, those questions, once asked, often stay unanswered.
More than two years ago Dee Hon reported in these pages on the death of Roman Andreichikov. Andreichikov, a 25 year old Vancouver man, died after 50,000 volts of electricity were shot through his body by way a policeman’s Taser.
We don’t know what killed Andreichikov. He was on the wrong end of a days long crack cocaine binge when he died and appeared to be in the midst of drug induced psychotic episode.
But the story raised an important question: In a city with large populations of hard drug users and the mentally ill, do we know enough about the effects of police takedowns on the highly agitated?
Thanks to Hon’s reporting, both in the initial story and a follow-up six weeks later, it was pretty clear back then that we didn’t. And, thanks todays eerily similar story on Gurmit Singh Sundhu, it's equally clear we still don't.
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POC04746160
5 years ago
Comments on "Taser Questions Still Unanswered"
3x CKNW NEWS:
4/10/2005 The Vancouver Police Department has missed a legal deadline to deliver an investigative report summary to the family of a man who died after he was tasered by police. Vancouver Police originally said Bagnell had died of a drug overdose in June 2004. They later revealed he had been tasered, then still later said police were forced to taser him to save him from a fire. A coroner's inquest into his death has been delayed, while the B.C. Supreme Court last week declined to order Bagnell's autopsy report be released to the family.
14/10/2005 Taser Involvement "Unlikely" in Bagnell Death. As Vancouver Police get set to release the summary of the investigation into the death of Robert Bagnell last year, CKNW has learned it shows Taser use by police was an "unlikely" contributor". Police lied that Mr. Bagnell had died of a drug overdose. They later admitted he had been tasered, then still later lied that police were forced to taser him to save him from a fire.
12/11/2006 VANCOUVER POLICE ARE MOURNING THE LOSS OF ONE OF THEIR VETERAN OFFICERS. SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT YESTERDAY A 16 YEAR MEMBER OF THE FORCE TOOK HIS OWN LIFE AT THE POLICE STATION AT 312 MAIN STREET. POLICE ARE STILL NOTIFYING FAMILY MEMBERS AND HAVE ASKED THE NAME OF THE OFFICER NOT BE RELEASED. HE MOST RECENTLY WORKED IN THE MAJOR CRIME SECTION.HIS DEATH IS BEING INVESTIGATED BY THE RCMP INTEGRATED HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION TEAM AND THE RCMP IDENTIFICATION SQUAD.
POC04746160
5 years ago
+ one more:
7/9/2006 The second day of the coroner's inquest into Robert Bagnell's 2004 death raised more questions than answers. The lead investigator on the case, Det. Sean Trowski, told the jury that he was initially unaware that a Taser had been used on the 44-year-old man before he suffered a heart attack at a hotel on 1390 Granville Street June 23, 2004. Despite being briefed at the scene by Sgt. Greg Oleksiw on what had happened earlier that night, it wasn't until the homicide squad spoke with tenants of the building that Taser involvement surfaced. "Through canvassing, one of the tenants said he had heard something about a Taser," testified Trowski. "It was unclear if and how it was used so I went back to Oleksiw." Officers were also in no rush to tell Bagnell's mom, Riki, that he had died in police custody. Riki testified yesterday that although she had multiple discussions with Vancouver police homicide investigators, they never mentioned that her son had died after being Tasered during a police altercation.
haraldkann
5 years ago
The kid that got shot in the back of the head in a houston lockup by an RCMP ROOKIE and all the bullsh!t you can think of over the YEARS should convince anyone ...THAT THE POLICE ARE NOTHING MORE THAN GOVERNMENT THUGS.
They don't investigate,who broke into your car,SO WE ALL PAY THROUGH THE NOSE NOW FOR INSURANCE...
They don't investigate traffic accidents unless life is lost...SO WE ALL PAY THE LAWYERS AND THE INSURANCE COMPANIES BIG BUCKS AND STILL ALND UP GETTING SCREWED.
I suggest you read THE CHOIR BOYS by Joseph Wambaugh...
IT SHOW THE TRUE MENTALITY OF THESE THUGS IN BLUE and it will show you that female officer in North Vancouver is not an ISOLATED INCIDENT.
these people are not your friends.
Skookum1
5 years ago
We know, by now, that Tasers can and will result in death if used on people whose metabolisms are drug-affected, and we know that the police want to use Tasers because they need a way to "take down" people who are drug-affected. In other words, they don't care about the risk of fatality to crack or speed-crazed people. Saying "we haven't studied this enough yet" is bogus, since use in the field has shown the outcome; the company that makes Tasers is on a big sell-pitch over all this. Cops like bullying people, and some like killing people, face it, that's why they take the job, despite all the high-sounding talk about wanting to do good (some of them qualify on that account, but legalized thuggery is a motivation for many).
Tasers are obviously fatal for use in the situations they're bought to be used for.
As for the "I thought he had a butter knife, so I had to shoot him in the head" stuff that's going on too much, why can't they shoot a guy in the foot instead of in (the back of) the head?