TASERS 'SAFE, SAVE LIVES,' POLICE SAY

Heaviest Use In Downtown Club And Bar Scene

Vancouver police used Tasers on average once a week last year,
usually during fights or when they were arresting people with weapons
or suffering from mental illness, Const. Howard Chow said yesterday.

Up to the end of last April, Tasers were used 15 times.

"Tasers continue to be an effective tool for our members during
dangerous encounters," Chow said. "They are safe, save lives and
prevent injuries."

The Taser, a non-lethal weapon designed to subdue people by zapping
them with a 50,000-volt charge, was most used in Vancouver's downtown
entertainment zone on Granville Street and the Downtown Eastside, Chow said.

Amnesty International last year said it had catalogued 103 cases in
which the targeted person later died.

It said drug intoxication, pre-existing heart conditions and "excited
delirium" were serious risk factors in Taser-related deaths.

The family of a man Tasered by police in 2004 is suing for damages in
B.C. Supreme Court, claiming his death was the result of gross negligence.

Robert Bagnell, 44, died from cardiac arrest due to cocaine-induced psychosis.

Also in 2004, Roman Andreichikov, 25, died after he was Tasered. A
coroner's inquest found the death was caused by the amount of crack
cocaine in his system.

In 2003, Terrance Hanna, 51, who admitted using cocaine and heroin,
died after being Tasered in a struggle with Burnaby RCMP inside the
bar at the North Burnaby Inn.