'IT WAS LIKE THEY JUST LET GO': COP

Fatality Inquiry

A tactical cop who threw a flash-bang device at a fourth-floor balcony
where two men plunged to their deaths during a police raid says it was
empty at the time.

Testifying yesterday at a fatality inquiry into the Sept. 24, 1999,
deaths of Huu Pham, 15, and Adam Miller, 21, Const. Malcolm Allan said
he saw three men rush onto the balcony after he had already tossed the
concussive grenade.

"As it's in the air or leaving my arms, the three subjects come
rushing out onto the balcony," testified Allan.

"I just remember it leaving my arm and there they were, all three of
them."

The tactical unit member said the trio were "racing" and each had one
leg over the railing when the flash-bang arced at the level of the
fourth-floor balcony, descended to just above the third-floor balcony
and then detonated.

When the device went off, one man stopped and hopped back onto the
balcony while Pham and Miller continued to climb over, said Allan.

"They didn't miss a beat, they just continued to move," he said,
adding he recalls the pair looking down, then falling.

"They didn't jump - it was like they just let go," he said. "I
remember their eyes wide open in a state of flight."

Allan told the inquiry the goal of his flash-bang deployment was to
provide a diversion from the main entry.

Under cross-examination, Allan testified he was told to not deploy the
flash-bang if anyone was on the balcony "for safety reasons." He also
said it was an error when he wrote in his notes that the device hit
the railing.

Allan testified he was in a state of shock after the
event.

"I saw two people die right in front of my eyes," he
said.

The raid at 12925 65 St. was part of a joint RCMP-city police
operation targeting an alleged major drug gang.

The inquiry has heard two flash-bang devices were detonated during the
raid, one in and one out. Tom Engel, the lawyer for the Miller family,
contends a flash-bang played a role in the fatal plunge of the two
young men.