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| No safety standards for Tasers, inquest hears |
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| Bagnell inquest resumes |
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| Probe expands in police shooting case |
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There are no Canadian safety standards for Tasers, a "less-lethal" weapon that is designed to fire 50,000 volts of electricty into a person's body, inflicting excruciating pain and overwhelming the central nervous system, a coroner's jury heard yesterday.
Allan Nakatsu, a project team leader with global product testing firm ETL Intertek Semko, testified that, unlike toasters, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, or even cattle prods and electric fences, no electrical standards or testing protocols exist for the weapons, which were quietly introduced into Canada in 2000.
Mr. Nakatsu also testified that one of the two Tasers Intertek tested generated energy output of 30.42 joules/pulse, eighty-five times greater than the manufacturer's specification of .36 joules/pulse. Earlier, the jury heard that police investigators took the two Tasers used on Robert Bagnell to the lab to be tested.
The manufacturer, Arizona company Taser International Inc., maintains that the Taser is safe. Company spokesman Steve Tuttle has reportedly said that the energy output of .36 joules/pulse is too low to cause cardiac damage.
Amnesty International has just released a much-anticipated report on Canadian Taser use, recommending that the use of the weapons be discontinued.
Robert Bagnell, 44, died on June 23, 2004 after at least 13 Vancouver police officers responded to a 911 call for an ambulance. Bagnell was in a state of mental distress in his bathroom. Police ERT (SWAT) members Tasered him twice while extricating him from the bathroom, according to testimony at the inquest.
Update: The five person jury presiding at the coroner's inquest classified the death as an accident and was "unable to agree on any recommendations", the coroner's court heard yesterday.
Meanwhile, an unidentified San Jose man died yesterday after being Tasered by police, bring the reported Taser-related death toll to 268. Ten people have died so far in May, 2007 after being Tasered by police. 209 people died after being Tasered in the period between Robert Bagnell's death on June 23, 2004 and the conclusion of the inquest into his death on May 25, 2007.
After an unusual eight month adjournment, the coroner's inquest into the death of Robert Bagnell is scheduled to resume tomorrow at the offices of the BC Coroners Service in Burnaby. In September of 1997, a five person jury heard evidence that Robert Bagnell, 45, died in June of 2004 after he was jolted with 50,000 volts from two Taser guns wielded by Vancouver Police ERT (SWAT) members. Bagnell, who had a pre-existing heart condition and was in poor health, was unarmed and alone in his bathroom when he was confronted by police. The inquest has heard that at least a dozen police officers responded to a 911 call for an ambulance.
Yesterday, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP announced that it had amended the chair-initiated complaint into the fatal shooting of Kevin St. Arnaud:
"Mr. Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC), the federal agency that provides independent civilian review of RCMP members' conduct in performing their policing duties, has amended a complaint into the events related to the shooting death of Kevin St. Arnaud near Vanderhoof, British Columbia, pursuant to section 45.37(1) of the RCMP Act.
The inquest into Mr. St. Arnaud's death occurred in January 2007. It became clear from evidence heard during the inquest that there are also issues relating to the adequacy of the original criminal investigation that need to be addressed as part of the Commission's public complaint.
As such, Mr. Kennedy is amending his public complaint to add the following allegation:
Members of the RCMP failed to conduct an adequate investigation into the death of Mr. St. Arnaud."
Kevin St. Arnaud
The coroner's inquest jury heard evidence that RCMP constable Ryan Sheremetta, then 22, shot Kevin St. Arnaud, 29, three times in the chest from a distance of some 5.5 metres in the early morning hours of December 19, 2004. Kevin was intoxicated, unarmed, had his hands up and was holding only a white plastic bag and two plastic pill bottles just before he was killed.
Cst. Sheremetta testified he feared for his life and fired all three bullets from flat on his back as Kevin approached him in a menacing manner, shouting, "you're gonna have to shoot me motherfucker". However, his colleague Cst. Colleen Erickson, a twenty four year veteran of the RCMP, saw the shooting from nearby and testified that Sheremetta was standing "in a combat stance" when he fired the shots and that she did not hear the alleged threat. A civilian eyewitness reported that Sheremetta was standing just before the shots rang out, and that Kevin had his hands up in surrender.
The forensic evidence of three experts revealed that both men were standing, that Kevin was stationary just before he collapsed, and that the three fatal bullets entered his body in a downward trajectory of 30 to 40 degrees. The primary investigator, RCMP Staff Sgt. Glenn Krebs, conceded that he concluded in April of 2005 that there were "inaccuracies" in Sheremetta's account , but his superior, RCMP Staff Sgt. Flath nonetheless subsequently advised Crown Counsel that there was "insufficient evidence" to support criminal charges.
Cst. Sheremetta reportedly remains on active duty with the RCMP in Kamloops, as does Cst. Paul Koester, who fatally shot Ian Bush in Houston, BC in October of 2005. Kevin St. Arnaud leaves three young children, his parents, two younger brothers and a sister.
