POLICE SHOOTING 'RIDICULOUS'

An Experienced Officer 'Would Have Never Drawn A Gun', Police Expert Says

VANCOUVER - Lack of officer experience was a key factor in the police
shooting of a 29-year-old man on Boxing Day, says an expert who has
taught combat techniques to police forces in the United States,
Germany and Canada.

Allan Chad, who at one time taught combat skills to the Vancouver
police department's emergency response team, said he thinks the police
account of the events leading up to the death of Gerald Chenery were
"absurd" and "inconsistent with my more than 25 years of experience in
the professional use of force."

"In my opinion, two trained and experienced police officers should be
able to control this type of situation without the use of handguns,"
Chad said in a sworn affidavit released on Sunday by the Pivot Legal
Society, a Vancouver-based watchdog group that has often been critical
of the police.

Police have said Chenery was wielding two sharp steak knives when they
shot him, and have called it a "life and death" situation.

In an interview, Chad said he believes an experienced officer "would
have never drawn a gun," and instead would have used other measures
such as pepper spray or a baton. "It's ridiculous," he said. "Two
experienced officers would have taken control of that situation."

On Boxing Day, Chenery was shot at 15 times by two officers, each with
less than a year of experience, Vancouver police department spokesman
Const. Howard Chow said last week.

Chenery was hit 12 times, Chow said, but used two steak knives to
fight the officers until the final shot.

Chow would not specify exactly how much service each officer had, but
said experience was not a factor because the two had followed their
training.

On Sunday, police department spokeswoman Const. Anne Drennan stood by
the police account of events, saying they were taken from the officers
involved as well as from independent witnesses.

"We believe in the integrity of the information and the integrity of
our investigation," she said when asked about the affidavit, "and I
would suggest to you that we are not remotely interested in what this
man has to say."

In the report, Chad says he believes Chenery was experiencing "cocaine
psychosis" at the time he was shot, and because of that, officers
should have known to take a "cautious approach" if they intended to
make an arrest.

Chad supported this claim by citing a toxicology report that he says
indicate "very low levels" of cocaine metabolite were found in
Chenery's blood.

He further blamed officers for not establishing "proper physical
control" over the situation and questioned why they let Chenery get
between them.

Pivot executive director John Richardson said he interviewed a witness
who indicated there were three officers at the scene before the
shooting, not two, as police have said.

He said that information, as well as Chad's report, means there are a
lot of "unanswered questions."

He said he planned to submit a written request to the police
department asking for the incident reports police are using to compile
information about the shooting.