Dziekanski didn't wield stapler before RCMP fired Taser, inquiry hears

A witness to Robert Dziekanski's fatal run-in with four Mounties at Vancouver airport never saw a stapler in the Polish immigrant's hand in the moments before he was jolted by a Taser, an inquiry heard Monday.

Testifying at the inquiry into Dziekanski's death, Alison Kula said she had an unobstructed view of what was going on in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, when he was shocked by a Taser and then turned lifeless on the floor.

Kula, a customer service agent with Horizon Air, said Monday that Dziekanski threw his hands in the air after four RCMP officers stunned him with a Taser the first time. He then fell screaming to the floor after being jolted a second time, the inquiry heard.

Dziekanski was immigrating to Canada from Poland and spoke little English. He died shortly after being stunned up to five times by the RCMP Taser. He had been wandering the airport for hours and became agitated after a series of communications breakdowns kept him in a controlled area.

Patrick McGowan, associate commission counsel for the inquiry, asked whether Kula saw Dziekanski holding anything in his hand right before the stun gun was deployed.

"You have told us about Mr. Dziekanski raising his hands and turning. Is that right?" McGowan asked.

"Right, he kind of raised his hands and then turned and walked away," Kula replied.

"Did you see his hands clearly when he raised them and walked away?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Was there anything in his hands that you recall?" he asked.

"No," she said.

Stapler issue crucial

The inquiry heard last week that Dziekanski was holding a stapler in the moments before the four RCMP officers surrounded him and shocked him in the arrivals area at Vancouver International Airport. The stapler was cited by Crown prosecutors last year when they announced the four Mounties involved in the confrontation wouldn't face criminal charges.

Kula testified Monday that after Dziekanski was handcuffed and lying on his front, she saw his hands turning purple and then very blue.

She said the Mounties did not turn his body over until later, after firefighters arrived.

She said she saw a man in a dark suit check Dziekanski's pulse before the firefighters arrived, although it wasn't any of the four uniformed RCMP officers who had confronted him.

She didn't know who the man was, and he hasn't been identified at the inquiry, she said.

Less than two weeks after Dziekanski's death, Kula told police investigators that there was also an RCMP officer kneeling beside Dziekanski and she assumed that he, too, was checking for a heartbeat.

But on Monday, she testified that the officer was kneeling by Dziekanski's legs, and she doesn't think he could have checked for a pulse from that position.

"But thinking back on it, honestly, he would have had to move to check his pulse because there was no way he could reach his pulse point from where he was," she said.

"I never saw him really move."

Kula was also the latest witness to tell the inquiry that even as Dziekanski started throwing furniture, she didn't feel threatened by the man.

All four officers are expected to testify at the inquiry in the coming weeks.  The inquiry is scheduled to run until the end of February, after which retired B.C. Appeal Court justice Thomas Braidwood will issue a report with his recommendations and any findings of misconduct.