INQUEST FINDS TASER WASN'T A FACTOR IN MAN'S DEATH

No Recommendations Made by Jury

The mother and sister of a Vancouver man who died after he was zapped
with two Tasers discharged by policemen was disappointed an inquest
jury made no recommendations after hearing 10 days of evidence about
the man's death.

The five-man jury concluded Robert Wayne Bagnell died on June 23, 2004
of a "restraint-associated cardiac arrest" due to acute cocaine
intoxication and psychosis.

Bagnell's mother, Riki Bagnell of Prince Edward Island, and his
sister, Patti Gillman of Ontario, were disappointed by the lack of
recommendations, considering much of the testimony focused on the
police use of Tasers.

Gillman said she hoped the inquest jury would recommend that police
should not investigate themselves when an officer is involved in a
fatal incident. "They should move to the SIU [Special Investigation
Unit] model in Ontario," she said.

Gillman also hoped the jury would recommend Amnesty International's
call for a moratorium on the use of Tasers until independent research
can be conducted on risk factors that have led to so many deaths.

She said 267 people have died after they were zapped with Tasers in
North America.

Robert Wayne Bagnell, 44, died after receiving two electrical shocks
from Tasers by Vancouver police, who tried to arrest him after
receiving a 911 call about a man rampaging in a common washroom of the
Continental Hotel on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, where
Bagnell lived.

He had locked himself in the bathroom and was smashing things before
police arrived. Police stayed outside the washroom, waiting for him to
calm down, but a fire began on the ground floor and smoke began
filling the building.

A Taser-equipped emergency response team was called in. Bagnell was
zapped by two separate Tasers, which incapacitate a person by
discharging 50,000 volts of electricity.

The inquest heard that Bagnell's heart was enlarged to one-and-a-half
times normal size, an indication of chronic cocaine use. He also had
undergone open-heart surgery to repair a heart valve.

A toxicologist testified Bagnell's blood sample results were 4.2
milligrams of cocaine per litre of blood. The minimum lethal level is
one milligram per litre if cocaine is injected or smoked as crack
cocaine, but 10 times that if it is snorted.

The probable cause of death was a "restraint-associated cardiac arrest
due to acute cocaine intoxication," Dr. Laurel Gray, a pathologist,
testified at the inquest. She said it was unlikely that Taser use
would have contributed to his death.