Mounties trained to believe Tasers aren't fatal, inquiry hears
The Mounties who confronted Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport and stunned him with a Taser were told in training there's no medical evidence the high-voltage stun guns disrupt breathing or the heart, the officer who trained them testified at a public inquiry Thursday.
Cpl. Gregg Gillis told the provincial inquiry into Dziekanski's death that the RCMP's Taser training course warns about the risk of sports-type injuries such as pulled muscles or ligaments and even stress fractures, especially with multiple stuns.
But Gillis, the B.C. RCMP's use-of-force authority, testified he knew of no medical evidence that what police call conducted-energy weapons can cause death or interfere with core body functions such as respiration and cardiac function.
However, increased exposure does carry increased injury risk, he said in his testimony Thursday.
The initial risk comes in the first standard five-second application, when the target loses control of their muscles and falls limply to the ground, Gillis said. After that, muscle spasms can create "stress-type injuries similar to a sporting event," he said.
"Equally, if I do more than one, I continue to increase the risk of those sort of injuries," Gillis testified.
Those risks should be factored in when officers check someone after using a Taser on them, he said.
Gillis, who appeared at the inquiry last May to talk generally about Taser use, had trained three of the four Mounties who confronted Dziekanski. Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bentley and Kwesi Millington — who fired the Taser on the Polish immigrant — took a two-day training program with Gillis in the summer of 2007. All three passed and received a three-year Taser certification.
Dziekanski died Oct. 14, 2007, at Vancouver airport's international arrivals area after being confronted by the three Mounties and their superior, Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson, all of whom were summoned after Dziekanski started throwing furniture. Dziekanski stopped breathing as he lay handcuffed on the floor.
Millington deployed the Taser five times. He told the inquiry he did not believe the device worked initially because he heard a clacking sound.
'Silence is golden'
Gillis, who discussed training and not the incident itself, said trainees are shown a PowerPoint slide that says "silence is golden."
He said it means that if they hear the clacking sound, it could indicate the Taser's fish-hook-shaped probes have snagged in clothing and are not creating a complete circuit, which could decrease or even negate the electrical jolt.
Trainees are taught to use sound combined with their observation of the target's behaviour as indicators of the Taser's effectiveness, Gillis said.
The RCMP classifies Tasers as a "less lethal" intermediate weapon, he said. It might be used instead of pepper spray if a subject is combative or non-compliant.
Dziekanski spoke no English and the officers deployed their Taser just seconds after backing him up against an airport counter, even though he appeared not to be aggressive.
Gillis said officers are taught to reassess, if there's time, before jolting someone a second or third time and are warned they will have to justify shocking someone for more than the standard five seconds.
B.C. Green party leader Jane Sterk took advantage of the inquiry to make a campaign appearance to call for banning Taser use and replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force.