POLICE USED 'LESS-LETHAL' UNIT TO DEAL WITH ADDICT

Man Died In Hospital Shortly After Being Arrested By
Police

An inquest began Tuesday into the death of 40-year-old drug user
Daniel Hong Ross, who died Sept. 2, 2007, shortly after being arrested
by Vancouver police officers.

The police were called to the Murray Hotel, 1119 Hornby St., just
before noon after staff heard Hong Ross screaming and trashing his
suite.

Hotel manager John Gaspardy said Hong Ross had been admitted to
hospital a few months earlier for an overdose and had almost died. He
came off drugs for a while but then slipped back, Gaspardy said.

When he was off drugs, Hong Ross was compassionate and kind, but when
he was using, he was paranoid and menacing and given to bouts of
violence in his one-room suite in the cramped 100-year-old hotel, he
said.

Faced with this, Gaspardy said it was unsafe for staff to try to enter
Hong Ross's room that morning, so he called police. When the officers
arrived he told them Hong Ross was likely high on crack cocaine.

Evidence presented at the inquest Tuesday showed how police officers
reacted to what was a potentially dangerous encounter with someone in
a state of "excited delirium" in tight quarters where they had no room
to manoeuvre if they were attacked.

Const. James Leishman and his partner, Const. Scott Madden, testified
they could hear a male screaming incoherently and smashing objects
inside the room and could hear the crash of metal.

Leishman said he decided to ask for a "less-lethal weapons unit" to
come and help to avoid the necessity of the two officers having to use
their firearms if confronted by Hong Ross with a weapon.

Less-lethal units are armed with Tasers or shotguns that fire bean-bag
rounds that are designed to disable, not kill.

Const. Michael Vegh arrived armed with a bean-bag shotgun and the
officers forced the door open after repeated calls to Hong Ross failed
to get a response.

Leishman said he was concerned the officers would have no place to
retreat if attacked. He was designated as the "lethal over-watch
officer" and drew his side arm to protect Vegh if things went wrong.

He said people in a state of excited delirium often possess superhuman
strength and are impervious to pain.

The door was jammed by a bicycle and other objects but the officers
forced it open a couple of feet and Vegh could see a person lying on
the floor thrashing about and moaning. A large knife was lying on the
floor close to Hong Ross.

The officers went in, rolled him over and handcuffed him with his
hands behind his back. Madden then dragged him out into the hallway to
be examined by paramedic Heidi Stoll. At this point, they found
another knife that had been dragged out with him.

Hong Ross was unresponsive and was kicking out with his feet, so Vegh
put a hobble over them.

The corridors were too narrow to permit the paramedics to bring in a
stretcher, so the three officers picked Hong Ross up and carried him
down the stairs.

Stoll said she was behind them making sure the patient's head didn't
strike the stairs or walls.

He was placed on a stretcher and taken the short distance to St.
Paul's Hospital. She was unable to take his vital signs as Hong Ross
was struggling, but she did administer Narcan, a drug used to detoxify
people who have overdosed on heroin or another narcotic. She said it
had no effect.

As Hong Ross was being wheeled through the hospital, he stopped
breathing. Hospital staff worked for half an hour to revive him, but
he was pronounced dead at 1:40 p.m.

Coroner Scott Fleming told the jury an autopsy revealed the cause of
death was an overdose of amphetamines. The inquest was expected to
conclude today.