DRUG RAID DONE 'PERFECTLY': POLICE

Mistakes Made During Deadly Storming Of Gang Apartment, Fatality Inquiry Told

EDMONTON - An Edmonton police lawyer says tactical officers
"perfectly" executed their search warrant during a 1999 drug raid,
deflecting any responsibility for the deaths of two young men who
climbed over the apartment's balcony and fell to the parking lot below.

Leona Tesar told a fatality inquiry Wednesday that Adam Miller, 21,
of Edmonton and Huu Pham, 15, of Calgary made the ultimate choices
that led to their deaths.

Evidence presented during the inquiry showed the two fell about the
same time a police "flash-bang" was detonated near the fourth-floor
balcony. The device explodes with a loud bang, making a bright flash
and setting off smoke, and could have caused the men to fall.

Outside court, Allie Miller angrily blamed police for the death of
her son. "They didn't do a proper job of what they were supposed to
be doing that day."

Her lawyer, Tom Engel, said he was shocked Tesar made no
recommendations for police to improve their policies and techniques.

"It's outrageous, arrogant," said Engel. "I mean, how could you say
these two people were the authors of their own misfortune?

"Obviously it wasn't a perfectly executed warrant. Two innocent people died."

Three years after the inquiry began, lawyers finally gave closing
statements in the case before provincial court Judge Leo Wenden.

He said he will soon start writing his report but did not say when he
will finish. His job is not to assign blame but to provide
recommendations intended to prevent similar tragedies.

Wenden suggested he may recommend officers in the tactical unit get
more training.

He said the tactical officers did not properly time the raid on the
east-end apartment on Sept. 24, 1999.

The raid was part of a sweep of homes and businesses associated with
a city gang that trafficked in cocaine. Although police arrested some
people in the apartment, Pham and Miller were not suspects.

Const. Michael Allan was supposed to throw a flash-bang from the
parking lot to distract people in the apartment before other officers
used a ram to knock open the door.

But when the ramming began first, Pham, Miller and a third man fled
to the balcony.

They climbed the railing and the flash-bang went off.

"It has me bedevilled," said Wenden. He questioned whether tactical
officers should spend their downtime with more training exercises
rather than working general police duties.

"If they are highly trained, do they not become blunted instruments
if used in traffic or crowd control?" asked Wenden. "What does it do
to their skills?"

Engel recommended the tactical unit use the tragedy as a possible
scenario in future training. And he asked that investigations into
other police-related deaths be made public. No outside police agency
was called in to investigate this case. In May, during a surprising
last day of inquiry testimony, a former tactical officer disputed
Allan's evidence that it was too late to stop his throw of the
flash-bang once he saw the men climb over the railing.

Allan testified in 2004 that Pham and Miller "let go" of the railing
after the device went off.

Const. Adam Morrison wrote a letter to the inquiry this year stating
he had new evidence he was previously unable to talk about because he
was under stress.

Morrison testified Allan privately told him that he threw the
flash-bang, it hit the balcony's railing and went off at the same
time as the men fell.

Morrison said Allan then started walking towards their bodies on the
ground, intending to "put the boots to them."

Morrison has filed a $900,000 lawsuit against the police force
claiming he was bullied and harassed by fellow members of the
tactical unit. The allegations have yet to be proven in court.