STUN GUNS DON'T KILL - EXPERT

Stun gun deployment is by no means a death sentence, says the
province's chief medical examiner.

In fact, there's absolutely "no definitive cases where Tasers have
actually killed anybody," says Dr. Graeme Dowling, from the medical
examiner's office in Edmonton.

"You can understand why that perception happens, because it's the
thing that happened closest to the death. And it's something that
some people don't agree with, so you get this whole thing with civil
liberties versus how safe is it."

Dowling stresses that electricity from a Taser flows across the
skin's surface, not through internal organs, thus there's absolutely
no electrical effect on the heart.

But when there's a death in custody following deployment of a police
stun gun, the two are invariably linked.

Dowling said it's excited delirium - a relatively uncommon condition
known to strike drug and alcohol abusers and some psychiatric
patients - that's often to blame.

Victims typically display bizarre, aggressive, paranoid behaviour
that's combined with "superhuman" strength that can take between six
and eight people to restrain.

Once under control, victims of the condition can suddenly stop
breathing and all attempts to resuscitate them fail.

Immediate Speculation

"The frustrating thing for us is these deaths occur and the immediate
speculation is Taser," says Dowling.

That was the case with Ronald Perry, who died March 23, 2004, after
suffering a massive heart attack brought on by excited delirium. He
was taken to hospital four days earlier following a struggle with up
to six cops before a Taser was used to restrain him. The medical
examiner's office later found no link between his death and the stun gun.

Edmonton city police Const. Shawna Goodkey, with the officer safety
unit, says restraint of the person and medical attention are key
responses to potential excited delirium cases.

"We get enough resources to deal with them quickly, get a Taser
there. If there's a chance this is what's happening, the faster we
can get medical attention the more likely we'll be able to prevent
them from hitting that point of no return."

Cocaine Overdose

Publicity around stun gun use swirled again Christmas Eve, when
Alesandro Fiacco died on the way to hospital after police used a
Taser to restrain him. Toxicology tests revealed this week he died of
a cocaine overdose.

Perry's was the fourth death in Edmonton since May 2001 ruled to be
from excited delirium involving men who had to be subdued by police
because of violent behaviour.

The first case was that of a schizophrenic man who was pepper-sprayed
by officers. The autopsy concluded the spray did not contribute to
his death. Cocaine intoxication was blamed for causing excited
delirium in the other two cases. They did not involve Tasers or pepper spray.

But if authorities used no restraint in those cases, Dowling believes
the individuals still would not survive, "but then of course people
would say why didn't you help this person.

"It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation."

Dowling notes that before police Tasers were blamed for excited
delirium deaths, it was police pepper spray. And before that, it was
police hog-tying.

"But we've had cases where it's a closed apartment and the place is
trashed, mirrors are broken, and there's a person who's dead inside -
no police there, no one else there whatsoever, no Tasers, no
restraint, no nothing, but this person's still dead. And you do a
toxicology test and sure enough there's a bit of cocaine and those
are cases of excited delirium - no restraint yet they still die."