COP DETAILS FLASH-BANG USE IN RAID, INQUIRY HEARS

The cop who lobbed a flash-bang during a police raid in which two men
plunged to their deaths was told to throw the device if the balcony was
empty, a fatality inquiry heard yesterday.

Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham, 15, plunged from a fourth-floor balcony
during a raid at 12925 65 St. on Sept. 24, 1999. The raid was part of an
operation targeting an alleged major drug gang.

Const. Ken Brander, team leader of the tactical unit which conducted the
raid, told the fatality inquiry he gave an officer instructions about
lobbing the device.

"If it's an empty balcony when he goes to deploy it, I told him to deploy
it at the level of the railing," said Brander. "I said, hopefully it would
go off in the general area of the railing. If it goes off on the balcony,
that's no problem either. If the balcony is clear and he can see it."

The inquiry heard two flash-bang devices were detonated during the raid.
Tom Engel, the lawyer for the Miller family, contends a flash-bang played a
role in the fatal plunge of the two young men. Intelligence given to the
tactical unit about the suite was abundant, Brander said, and included a
"likelihood" there would be guns inside.

Officers were told it was "a place to flop for the night, a place to store
your drugs or to store your weapons," he said. And given information that
gang members were there, Brander said, this would have led the officers to
"step up" their tactics.

He also dismissed claims by three independent witnesses who said they saw a
helicopter present, saying he was on the balcony as it concluded and saw no
such aircraft.