Police Chief misses deadline in Bagnell case
September 29, 2005 in News
Vancouver Police Department Chief Constable Jamie Graham has failed to comply with the law requiring him to deliver an investigative report summary to the Bagnell family. The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has confirmed that the summary was due September 28, 2005 pursuant to s. 57(1) of the Police Act.
Police Complaint Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld has the final investigative report and a 75 page executive summary of it, but he is refusing to show either document to the Bagnell family.
Robert Bagnell, 44, died on June 23, 2004. The VPD initially told his family that Robert died of a drug overdose, then a month later revealed to the media that they had Tasered him twice just before he died. Another month after that, the VPD acknowledged that he was not a threat to anyone and that he was not involved in the commission of a crime when they sent an ERT (SWAT) team into the washroom Robert was in. The police said Bagnell was shocked with 50,000 volts so they could “rescue” him from a “fire” in his building. Although the family doubts these claims, they have been unable to obtain copies of police or autopsy reports and they have been unable to get an inquest scheduled, though one is mandatory.