SMOKE BOMB USED IN RAID, FATALITY INQUIRY WITNESS SAYS

EDMONTON - An object spewing smoke ricocheted off an apartment kitchen wall
then hit a balcony railing just before two men who were climbing over the
railing fell, a fatality inquiry heard Thursday.

The inquiry is investigating the deaths of Adam Stanley Miller, 21, of
Edmonton, and Huu Dinh Pham, 15, of Calgary. Both died after they fell from
the balcony railing of a fourth-floor suite during a Sept. 24, 1999, police
raid on the apartment at 12925 65th St. The inquiry previously heard that
members of a city police tactical unit entered the suite by using a ramming
device on the door.

They then fired two "flash-bang" diversionary devices, one inside the suite
and one from the parking lot below.

Thinh Duc Vu, 33, testified he had stayed at the apartment overnight with
several other people.

Sometime around 10 a.m., he awoke on the living room floor to the sound of
loud banging on the suite's door. He thought it was the police and ran
toward the balcony.

Miller and Pham got to the balcony first and were climbing over the
railing, Vu said. He testified he thought they were trying to climb down to
a balcony on the third floor.

Vu said he was standing with one foot inside the apartment and one foot on
the balcony when he saw a "smoke ball" coming at him from the kitchen. He
thought the object bounced off the kitchen wall.

He lost sight of the object, then heard a sound as it hit the metal railing
on the balcony, he said.

"When I turned back, they were already off the railing," he said. He
watched as Miller and Pham hit the ground.

Vu said he never thought about trying to escape from the balcony himself,
because he knew it was four floors up. "It's not like they had a swimming
pool down there."

While he was on the balcony, a helicopter was hovering nearby, close enough
for him to see two people through the open side door, he said.

He dropped to the balcony floor with his hands behind his back and remained
there until police inside the apartment reached him.

Vu said two police officers kicked him in the abdomen while he was lying
down. One used a boot to push his head face-first into the concrete floor,
leaving his face bloodied. "He told me, 'Shut up or I'll kill you.' "

The raid was part of a sweep by 300 police officers at 40 Edmonton homes
and businesses that led to dozens of arrests on charges of cocaine
trafficking and membership in a criminal gang.

Vu faced criminal charges after the raid, but they have since been stayed.
He is awaiting a deportation hearing and is being held at the remand
centre. He has been granted bail, but has yet to post bond.

The inquiry also heard Thursday from a neighbour who saw two men fall from
the balcony. At the time, Cody White Wolf was on the balcony of his
second-floor suite in an adjacent building.

He saw police arrive before the raid and decided to watch. He said one man
who came out of a police van with a video camera had the camera trained on
the balcony during the raid.

He said he saw a police officer in the parking lot below use a launcher to
fire an object towards the balcony.

White Wolf said he believed the pair who died were trying to climb down to
another balcony on a lower floor.

Miller and Pham died later in hospital.