TASER DIDN'T KILL, INQUIRY TOLD

Pathologist Testifies Cocaine-Related Heart Attack More Likely

A cocaine-drugged man who died after Vancouver police shocked him
with a Taser had a history of heart problems and likely died of a
cocaine-triggered heart attack, a pathologist told a coroner's inquest Tuesday.

The pathologist was the first of 36 scheduled witnesses to testify at
the inquest into the death two years ago of Robert Wayne Bagnell, a
44-year-old amphetamine and cocaine user.

Bagnell died after he locked himself in a bathroom at the Continental
Hotel in downtown Vancouver and began screaming and smashing things.
The first police officers sent to the hotel called in a
Taser-equipped emergency response team, coroner Stephen Fonseca said
during his opening statement.

A Taser is a pistol-shaped device that uses compressed nitrogen to
propel a pair of electrically-charged barbs. Electrodes or wires
transmit as much as 50,000 volts to the target, which usually makes a
human collapse but is not fatal.

Pathologist Dr. Laurel Gray, who has conducted more than 9,000
post-mortem examinations, pointed to several pre-existing health
problems she suggested may have contributed to Bagnell's death.

She said Bagnell had an enlarged heart that weighed 480 grams, which
is about one-and-a-half times the size of a normal heart. He also had
undergone open-heart surgery to repair a heart valve.

The pathologist pointed to toxicological tests that suggested there
were "significantly high" cocaine levels in Bagnell's bloodstream, as
well as methamphetamines. Gray said the heart has to beat "harder and
faster" when someone uses cocaine. She said the probable cause of
death was a "restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine
intoxication."

People who suffer from acute cocaine intoxication do bizarre and
violent things, exhibit incredible body strength, and overheat to the
point of exhaustion, she later noted.

If the evidence presented at the inquest shows Bagnell struggled with
police after he was hit with the Taser, Gray suggested it was
unlikely that being hit was the cause of death.

"If a Taser was going to (stop the heart) it would have done it
immediately," she said.

ROBERT BAGNELL

Age: 44.

Date of death: June 23, 2004, after he was Tasered by Vancouver police.

Place of death: A bathroom in a Granville Street hotel.

Cause of death: To be determined by a coroner's jury at the end of a
10-day inquest.