DRUGS, NOT TASERS, MAIN CAUSE OF CHILLIWACK MAN'S DEATH, INQUEST
TOLD

A lethal dose of the "feel good" drug Ecstasy - not repeated jolts of
electricity from Tasers in the hands of Chilliwack RCMP officers - was
the main cause of Robert Knipstrom's death, a forensic pathologist
told a coroner's jury Wednesday.

But the decision to handcuff the 36-year-old Chilliwack man with his
hands behind his back, and then transporting him to hospital lying on
his belly in a prone position was "possibly" a contributing factor to
his death, Dr. Dan Straathof said.

However, Chilliwack RCMP officers, fire department officials and BC
ambulance paramedics testifying at the coroner's inquest have all
insisted there was no other way to safely get Knipstrom to hospital
after a violent confrontation with police on Nov. 19, 2007.

Knipstrom was returning a wood-chipper to the EZE-Rent-It Centre that
day at about 3 p.m. when he started acting strangely, and refused to
stay out of an area reserved for employees.

When police were called and two officers arrived from the RCMP
detachment across the street, a fight erupted in which Knipstrom was
tasered, pepper-sprayed and struck with a metal baton before he was
finally subdued by several additional police officers who arrived on
the scene.

But even after he was handcuffed, Knipstrom continued to struggle and
kick, howling unintelligibly at anyone who approached him, including
paramedics trying to treat his wounds.

Paramedic Rick Simon told the inquest Wednesday that he was aware of
the ambulance service policy that no patients are to be transported in
a prone position while their hands are secured behind their back.

But he said there was no other way to get Knipstrom to hospital,
without causing him further injury.

"Every time we tried to move him, he was quite agitated," Simon said.
"I was afraid we'd cause him further injury."

So Knipstrom made the 12-minute trip to Chilliwack General Hospital
lying on his belly with his hands cuffed behind his back, in violation
of the policy.

Shortly after his arrival at CGH at 4:01 p.m., still in a prone
position, Knipstrom went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing for
about 28 minutes.

Straathof said "acute intoxication" with Ecstasy was the main cause of
Knipstrom's death four days later on Nov. 24 at Surrey Memorial
Hospital, where he had been transferred for treatment.

Straathof said the physical restraint that Knipstrom was held under at
CGH was "a component" of the events which led up to his cardiac
arrest, and to the resulting brain and organ damage due to the lack of
oxygen.

But he could not say how much of a role the physical restraint played
in Knipstrom's death, nor whether the prone position in particular
added to the harm.

"There has been some suggestion that physical restraint, especially
face-down restraint, can result in reduced lung function," he said.

However, he said it's also possible that Knipstrom could have gone
into cardiac arrest from the effect of the Ecstasy alone, without any
kind of physical restraints present.

The Tasers did not contribute to the cardiac arrest, Straathof
suggested, because it occurred much later after the confrontation with
the RCMP. He also found no evidence during an autopsy that the Taser
probes actually made contact with Knipstrom's body.

Dr. Walter Martz, a toxicologist at the Provincial Toxicology Centre,
said

6.1 mg of Ecstasy per litre of blood was found in a sample taken from
Knipstrom when he was admitted to CGH on Nov. 19.

Martz said 150 mg of Ecstasy will produce about 0.5 mg/litre in the
blood of a user. The 6 mg found in Knipstrom's blood sample is "within
the range" of a lethal dose, he said.

But Martz warned that some people are more sensitive to the drug than
others, and instead of the expected euphoria can experience a
psychotic episode.

He said a recent animal study also suggests that pepper spray enhances
the stimulant effect of Ecstasy, increasing the need for oxygen as the
heart rate increases, while at the same time making breathing more
difficult.

"The outcome might be fatal," he said.

The inquest is scheduled to end Friday after experts in police use of
force and a condition known as "Excited Delirium" are heard.