STUN GRENADE MAY HAVE BEEN LETHAL

Inquiry Will Explore Deaths In Police Raid

EDMONTON - Two people killed when they fell from an Edmonton apartment
during 1999 raids on suspected drug gangsters may have been blown off the
balcony by a police stun grenade, a lawyer says.

Police originally indicated Adam Miller, 22, and Huu Pham, 15, jumped off a
fourth-floor balcony Sept. 24, 1999, when the tactical team burst through
the door of the apartment where they'd been staying.

But reports by officers involved show a concussion grenade one of them
tossed from the ground went off as the pair were either climbing over the
railing or hanging on the other side.

"It seems to be fairly clear that they did not jump, that it was as a
result of that 'flash-bang' (grenade) that they either got blown off, or
they were stunned and as a result they fell," lawyer Tom Engel said Tuesday.

A fatality inquiry into the deaths has been tentatively set for June.

A police constable was standing behind the building at 12925 65th St. at
10:20 a.m., assigned to throw one of the painfully loud grenades as a
distraction.

As his colleagues rammed open the suite's front door, he pulled the pin and
tossed the device towards the balcony, the constable wrote in a report.

At this point three males ran out. One pulled back, but two others
continued to "climb/leap over the balcony," and either let go of the
railing or jumped, he wrote.

The grenade went off about two metres away from them. The constable said he
tried to challenge the pair.

"I did not have time to get the first syllable out of my mouth before they
jumped off. This entire sequence of events took approximately 4-5 seconds."

The men, who had been visiting people they knew in the suite, fell
head-first, Engel said. Neither was wanted by police or had a criminal record.

The incident occurred during 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.

Eighteen people still face charges in two trials now tied up by legal
arguments.

By last fall that case had cost the federal government more than $15 million.

Engel, acting for Miller's mother Allie, has been pushing the province to
hold a fatality inquiry into her son's death.

"That's an obvious concern on the part of the mother, that they are trying
to cover it up or suppress the truth."

In an October 1999 letter to chief medical examiner Dr. Graeme Dowling,
Miller wrote that she had heard three or four stories of what happened.

"I know my son and he wouldn't have run from police."

Dowling explained in a March 2002 letter that the fatality inquiry was
postponed because federal prosecutor Cynthia Dickins thought it could
produce evidence that would jeopardize the fairness of the criminal trials.

Last month Alberta Justice, under pressure from the Miller family, reversed
its position.

The drug-gang trials are so delayed that the five-day fatality inquiry
should go ahead, wrote Justice lawyer Lionel Whittaker.

An Edmonton police spokesman wouldn't comment on the case because it's
going to be in court.

But Bart Johnson of Alberta Justice described talk of a cover-up as
"ludicrous."

"It's not unusual for a fatality inquiry to be put on hold pending the
outcome of related criminal charges," he said.

"This is different in that the fatalities were not directly as a result of
the alleged criminal activity that's before the courts."