SAFETY BOARD REPORT ASSAILS LAVAL POLICE

Aftermath Of Botched Drug Raid. Thorough Gun-Registry Check Could Have
Saved Life Of Investigator Slain In Brossard Home, Agency Says

A thorough check of the gun registry before Laval police carried out a
botched drug raid could have spared the life of Constable Daniel
Tessier, the provincial workplace health and safety board says.

Tessier was killed on March 2, 2007, after he and a small group of
fellow officers stormed a Brossard home. He was fatally shot by Basil
Parasiris and another Laval police officer was wounded, but an
investigation by the Commission de la sante et de la securite du
travail of the incident has determined neither would have been inside
the house that morning if they knew Parasiris had a registered firearm.

The Brossard resident, acquitted this year of first-degree murder,
kept four loaded firearms in his home. One was registered, but to
Parasiris's former address.

The CSST also attributed an insufficient evaluation of the risk
involved in the drug raid as another cause of Tessier's death.

Parasiris, 42, testified that he believed he and his family were the
victims of a home invasion.

He is expected to plead guilty to eight weapons charges in January,
including one charge of not properly registering the .357 magnum
revolver he used to kill Tessier.

When a Laval police officer checked the gun registry before the raid,
he entered only the address on Rimouski Cres. where Parasiris was
living at the time. No guns turned up in that search.

According to the CSST's report, if investigators had entered
Parasiris's name, they would have discovered he had a registered
firearm and the drug squad would have called in its intervention
group, or SWAT team, to carry out the so-called "dynamic entry," an
aggressive search used when police believe a suspect might destroy
evidence before being arrested.

According to the CSST report: "Laval's (intervention group) possesses
the equipment, the techniques and the training required to carry out
this type of intervention."

It also states the Surete du Quebec's tactical squad could have been
called in to assist if Laval's squad felt it was too risky or it
didn't have the resources.

Members of both Laval's intervention group and the SQ's tactical squad
were assisting Laval police that morning. But they were assigned to
other addresses because other suspects targeted in the
drug-trafficking investigation were believed to be armed.

After confirming Parasiris's address on the gun registry, the drug
squad determined Parasiris did not represent enough of a threat to
call in the intervention group. Parasiris did not meet that criterion
because, as far as they knew, he did not possess a firearm, was not
seen carrying a firearm during their investigation, did not have a
violent criminal record, and the house had no obstacles like security
cameras or guard dogs.

Laval police Lt. Daniel Guerin said changes have already been made
that address the CSST's findings. The drug squad stopped doing dynamic
entries after Tessier's death and every member of the Laval police has
since been trained on how to properly search the gun registry, Guerin
said.

"But at no time did we call into question the work of our officers,
which was done in a professional manner and with rigour," Guerin said.

In Quebec City, Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said that as a
result of the incident, Laval police have adjusted their dynamic entry
procedures and training for future police officers has been changed.