Man died after 4 Taser jolts, witness alleges
RCMP say deceased man was 40-year-old Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski
An eyewitness with cellphone footage spoke out Monday night about what she allegedly saw at the Vancouver International Airport when a man was subduedwith Tasers by RCMP and later died.
The RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has identified the man as 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski of Pieszyce, Poland, who arrived at the airportmid-afternoon on Saturday.
Sima Ashrafinia, whorecordedthe incidentat the airport on her cellphone,told CBC News that RCMP officers stunned Dziekanski four times and handcuffed him after he fell on the floor.
"The third andfourth ones were at the same time," she alleges. "The officer at his right and the officer at his left, they Tasered him at the same time and he fell down on his right.
"As he fell down, four or five officers gathered around him and handcuffed him while he was on the floor."
She also alleges she offered to tell the RCMP officers what she witnessed, and that one officer said, "'I'll be with you in a few minutes.'" But the officers did not take a statement from her, she alleges.
Ashrafinia said she never felt Dziekanskihad beena threat. Police said they have learned Dziekanski was in the process of immigrating to Canada from Poland in order to live with family in B.C.
Meanwhile, RCMPspeculated Monday the man may have had a rare condition known as excited delirium,though the coroner's office has not yet determined the cause of death.
Richmond RCMP Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said witnesses reported seeing the man sweating profusely and showing the whites of his eyes when he began violently tossing chairs and luggage inside the airport early Sunday.
Excited delirium isdescribed as an agitated state, when a person experiences an irregular heartbeat and suddenly dies. It can happen to psychiatric patients and people using drugs such as cocaine.
Officers physically restrained Dziekanski and applied handcuffs, Lemaitre said.
"He was on his back, and being combative and still fighting. Even though he had received what they call pulses, two pulses from Taser, he was still out of control," Lemaitre told CBC Newsworld onMonday morning.
Lemaitre denied links between the Taser jolts and the man's death, saying deaths are often not directly related to the stun gun but rather caused by some pre-existing medical condition or drug use.
The violent episode happened after the man passed through customs and picked up his luggage, police said. Witnesses reported the man yelled in what sounded like an Eastern European language and had arrived on an international flight.
| Symptoms of excited delirium: |
|---|
| Signs of agitated or excited delirium,also knownas in-custody death syndrome, include acute agitation, violence, profuse sweating and insensitivity to pain. The condition causes the heart to race, either because of a mental illness or drug use, before it eventually stops beating. Excited delirium has been cited as the cause of death in a number of coroner's reports around the world, but some civil rights groups have questioned its existence. |
The coroner's office is still performing toxicology and other tests, and has not yet released the cause of death.
Lawyer calls for moratorium on Taser use
The death has renewed debate about the use of Tasers by police officers, with one Vancouver lawyer calling for a moratorium on the use of the weapons.
Cameron Ward said police typically blame deaths on medical conditions, and the coroner's office often comes to the same conclusion.
"My feeling is they're being overused. They're being used on people who are in medical or emotional distress and often there are tragic consequences," said Ward.
Lemaitre said in an earlier interview that police considered using pepper spray but it would have affected other people in the airport. Healso said officers decided against using batons to subdue the man because of how it would have looked to the public.
Of the 16 stun gun-related deaths in Canada in the past four years, six have occurred in British Columbia.