FLASH FATALITIES?

Flash bangs (explosive devices) set off by police caused two males to fall
to their deaths in a 1999 police raid, a city homicide detective believes.
"It is my opinion that the concussion probably caused them to fall off (the
balcony)," homicide detective Dennes McGeady yesterday told a fatality
inquiry into the deaths of Adam Miller and Huu Pham.

It's the first time any Edmonton officer at the inquiry has stated that
view, although a U.S.-based expert in armed assault tactics previously
testified that could be the case.

McGeady, a 29-year veteran of the Edmonton Police Service, was sent to the
death scene Sept. 24, 1999, just moments after the fatal falls.

He and his partner had been backup officers at another raid connected to
the massive Project Kachou, which saw more than 40 raids carried out just
after 10 a.m. that day in Edmonton and Red Deer. Hundreds of charges were
laid against about 50 accused; however, the case has since collapsed and
all remaining charges have been abandoned.

McGeady's investigation concluded that there was no criminal wrongdoing in
the two deaths. "It is just my opinion" that either one or both of two
"flash-bang" devices fired by cops caused the fleeing males to come off the
fourth-floor balcony, McGeady told the inquiry.

An RCMP lab found no residue of the explosive devices on the males'
clothing, nor was any found on their bodies in an autopsy, McGeady said,
leaving him unable to make a "conclusive statement" as to the effect of the
explosions on the two males. "I am just going on the ability of the
witnesses, saying they both went down at the same time," the detective
said, explaining that makes him believe it was neither two accidental falls
nor deliberate leaps.

Miller, 21, and Pham, 15, fled to the balcony along with a half-dozen
suspected gang members when a police tactical team began assaulting the
door to the suite.

"It's my opinion they may have thought it (pounding on the door) might have
been another rival gang," McGeady said.

The inquiry heard earlier that the people targeted in the raids, allegedly
members of the "Trang Gang," were at the time involved in a bloody shooting
war with "Crazy Jimmy's Boys," another city drug gang.

Neither Pham nor Miller was a suspected drug gang member, McGeady said,
although Pham's mother told Calgary police previously that she suspected
her son was involved with a gang. Five hours before the raid, Miller had
been stopped in a car with a suspected drug gang member, although the
suspect was also known to be Miller's longtime friend.

McCready was the last witness at the inquiry. Summations will be made later
this month by three lawyers, representing Miller's family, the Edmonton
Police Service and some individual officers, respectively.