(CBC) – None of the four RCMP officers involved in the Taser-related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski will face criminal charges, Stan Lowe, the spokesman for B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch, confirmed Friday morning in Vancouver.
Dziekanski, 41, died in the secure arrivals area of Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, moments after he was shot with RCMP stun guns. His death ignited an international debate about the police use of stun guns.
Lowe said Friday that, after a full examination of the evidence, Crown prosecutors found it fell short of the test needed to apply criminal charges.
“In light of this independent evidence … there is not a substantial likelihood of conviction in this case for any of the offences considered. In fact the available evidence falls remarkably short of that standard. Accordingly, the Criminal Justice Branch will not be approving any charges in relation to this tragic event,” said Lowe.
Tasers deployed 5 times
According to a report released by Lowe on Friday, the officers used their Tasers on Dziekanski a total of five times, but only three attempts appeared to be successful in administering a shock.
Three forensic pathologists concluded that Dziekanski did not die as direct result of a cardiac arrest brought on by the electric shock from the stun guns, the report said.
Instead the pathologists concluded Dziekanski likely died as a result of cardiac arrest linked to a condition the report called Sudden Death Following Restraint.
That condition was brought on by a combination of:
* Heart disease due to chronic alcohol abuse.
* An agitated state of delirium.
* The stress of the physical restraint worsened by the deployment of the Taser.
* A decreased ability to breathe as a result of being restrained.
* Alcohol withdrawal.
Two medical experts concluded Dzeikanski’s irrational and aggressive behaviour before his death was result of a hysterical fear of flying, lack of sleep over a 30-hour period, and dehydration, which would have placed him at increased risk for sudden death, the report said.
Sudden Death Following Restraint usually involves individuals who are restrained after exhibiting combative and bizarre behavior. As a result, said the report, cases often involve law enforcement personnel.
Use of force within guidelines
The report also included the finding of a use-of-force expert brought in from a separate police department by the RCMP to investigate the conduct of the officers.
That officer concluded the four RCMP officers involved were acting with their legal duties to detain and restrain Dziekanski and their actions “represented a reasonable escalation and de-escalation of force based on the actions of the subject.”
The report noted Dziekanski had been acting extremely irrationally before the officers arrived, and that after first appearing to calm down, he grabbed a stapler and held it out.
At that point one of the officers deployed his Taser three times on Dziekanski, the report said.
The report also detailed how before Dziekanski left Poland on a flight from Poland via Germany to take up residence in Canada, he became extremely distressed and ill at the prospect of flying.
After eventually boarding the flight, he arrived in Vancouver about 20 hours later, where he waited for 10 hours in the airport’s secure customs and immigrations arrival area.
During that time, he made contact with several airport and customs officials, but because he spoke limited English, he was unable to communicate effectively with anyone that he was expecting to meet his mother at the airport .
Then around 1 a.m. PT, he began acting extremely irrationally and violently, attempting to smash the glass windows and furniture in the airport arrivals lounge.
The four RCMP officers then arrived, and fired on him with a stun gun within 30 seconds.
The RCMP subsequently made several public assertions about the incident that were proven false by a video recording made by a bystander, including the number of times the Tasers were deployed and the extent to which Dziekanski resisted arrest.
Mother ‘angry’ and ‘disappointed’
Zofia Cisowski, Dziekanski’s mother, said Friday that she was “surprised” and “disappointed” about the Crown’s decision.
“I am so angry. I am so surprised that they made a decision like that. I am disappointed,” Cisowski told CBC News.
Cisowski also said it’s unfair to her son that the Crown stated on Friday that he was going through alcohol withdrawal when he was jolted by the Tasers.
The Crown was trying to imply that her son was alcoholic, which he was not, Cisowski said.
She said her son was never a frequent drinker in Poland. The social culture in the construction industry, where he worked for five years, involved drinking with peers, but Dziekanski never indulged in alcohol.
Cisowski said she remains committed to seeking the “truth” behind what happened to her son, and is looking forward to the second phase of a public inquiry that has been looking into the use of police Tasers and the circumstances surrounding Dziekanski’s death.
The provincial government appointed former B.C. Supreme Court judge Thomas Braidwood to conduct the public inquiry.
Braidwood said in November that the inquiry had been postponed twice because the B.C. Crown had not decided whether charges would be laid against the four Mounties involved in the Taser incident.
Following the Crown’s announcement Friday that it would not lay charges, the RCMP said its four officers will take part in the inquiry, scheduled to begin Jan. 19.
RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout said two of the four officers have since been transferred to the East Coast, while the other two remain with the force in B.C.
One of the two officers in B.C. is facing a charge of impaired driving causing death in relation to a fatal crash in October in Delta, near Vancouver. He has been suspended with pay.
Gee Deepthroat there’s more …. One eyewitness publicly said that the RCMP did not want to take her statement and that she insisted that she make a written statement and then she waited over two hours before she was given the ‘right’ to detail, in writing, what she saw. I am told that several other witnesses left without giving any written statements that night after being told by RCM police that their statements were not needed by police. Conspiracy? Cover-up? Whitewash? What of the selective quotes taken from the witness statements which only harm the reputation of the dead man … yep, without the tape, we would have believed everything the police told us and dismissed the eye witnesses as being wtrong or ‘anti police’. I am ashamed of the RCMP and the Attorney General of B.C. and I am ashamed that a previously worthwhile institution has to be identified with this kind of garbage output by those who believe that protecting the reputation of that institution by lying to the people of this country is a legitimate process. A single woman survived her encounter with Mr. Dz. and she has paid a bigger price then those who contributed to his death. “Suden death following restraint” is a meaningless excuse suggesting that the man would have died even if the poolice had just said ‘please’. This is and was a disgraceful event and makeing fun of the amount of seconds passing before zapping Mr. Dz. is childish!
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I am glad that is cleared up, I thought it was 24 seconds.
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No mention (in the BC AG’s report) is made of the woman who safely approched Mr. Dz and tried in several languages to communicate with him. Are we to believe that the first taser hit (23-1/2 seconds after first police contact) had no electrical or painful effect on Mr. Dz?
His cries of pain and the resulting falling forward were only acting for a camera he knew nothing about?
See the study done in Israel on Tasers. It found that the prods did not have to contact the skin for the taser to deliver it’s voltage to the victim and remember Mr. Dz.’s cries of pain as he loses control of his body well before any police officer physically contacts him.
“The taser didn’t work” is so much bullscat that the entire BC AG report must be viewed for the trash it is! And trash it is. Sorry pal, the taser is a cowards weapon and it has too often been used in a cowardly way!
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Who is not in this conspiracy of cover up? Obviously the entire Criminal Justice Branch and the AG himself. My God, its huge. Reminds me of Colonel Flagg in MASH catching the co-conspirators in the act…..
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Steve Tuttle thinks he leads “the Canadian court of public opinion”. Sadly, the finding of the BC AG in the Robert Dz. affair has done more lasting harm to the public reputation of the RCMP then any other thing which the RCMP have done to themselves recently. Plainly put, “torture Tuttle” should just shut his yankee carpetbagger mouth since he only makes things worse for those many good RCM police officers who do not conduct themselves in the way that the 4 RCMP members did when faced with Mr. Dz. A sorry affair that does not enhance the public’s respect for the law and is or has been made worse by the fact that the lead officer in the Robert Dz. affair has been charged with impaired driving after killing another innocent raising serious issues with repect to that police officer’s judgement.
Lawrence Oshanek / Calgary
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Report says Taser not direct cause of death
Ronald J. Hansen and Robert Anglen –
The Arizona Republic
Pathologists in British Columbia have concluded that Taser stun guns did not directly cause, but might have played a role in, the 2007 death of a Polish immigrant at a Vancouver airport.
The death of Robert Dziekanski has created an uproar in Canada over the safety of the stun guns.
A report released Friday said three pathologists concluded that Dziekanski, 41, died from “sudden death following restraint” with no definite cause. The factors that might have contributed to his death were heart disease from alcohol abuse, agitated delirium, physical stress made worse by the Taser shocks, inability to breathe and alcohol withdrawal, the report said.
The report, issued by the province’s top law-enforcement officer, announced that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police acted appropriately and would not be prosecuted for shocking and arresting Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport after he became unruly.
Dziekanski died moments after being shocked at least four times by one officer using a Taser. The death led to an official inquiry about the weapons. A study released last week found that the Taser X26, which is used by thousands of police in the U.S. and Canada, can fire more electricity than the company says is possible and that its output can carry up to a 50 percent risk of cardiac arrest in some cases.
Steve Tuttle, a Taser vice president, said Friday’s report confirms the company’s view that their weapons don’t kill.
The report “has overturned the Canadian court of public opinion, which for over a year has laid blame on the RCMP officers and the use of a Taser device for the unfortunate death of Mr. Dziekanski,” Tuttle said.