Mounties involved in airport Taser death to appear at inquiry: RCMP

The four Mounties involved in a Taser-related death at the Vancouver airport last year will participate in a public inquiry that has been looking into the use of Tasers and circumstances surrounding Robert Dziekanski's death.

Dziekanski, 40, died in the airport's secure arrivals area on Oct. 14, 2007, shortly after being stunned at least three times by RCMP Tasers. The newly arrived immigrant from Poland, who did not speak English, had been wandering around the airport lost for hours before being approached by RCMP officers.

B.C.'s criminal justice branch announced Friday there will be no charges against the four Mounties involved after deciding that independent evidence available was not sufficient to result in any criminal convictions.

The RCMP held a press conference after the announcement, stressing that the officers deployed to handle Dziekanski followed guidelines.

They were acting within their legal duties to detain and restrain Dziekanski, and their actions "represented a reasonable escalation and de-escalation of force based on the actions of the subject," according to a report released Friday by the province's criminal justice branch.

The report was written by a use of force expert brought in from a separate police department by the RCMP to investigate the conduct of the officers.

2 Mounties transferred to East Coast

RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout said two of the four officers have since been transferred to the East Coast, while the other two remain with the force in B.C.

The names of the officers were never made public by the force, but Rideout said they will take part in the Braidwood Inquiry ordered by the provincial government.

"Certainly those officers have a position that they can take. They have lawyers that represent them," Rideout said.

"My understanding is, as I speak to you today, that the officers will participate in [phrase two of] the Braidwood Inquiry."

The provincial government appointed former B.C. Supreme Court Judge Thomas Braidwood to conduct the public inquiry.

Braidwood said in November that the inquiry had been postponed twice because the B.C. Crown had not decided if charges would be laid against the four Mounties involved in the Taser incident.

Since it has been decided that the Mounties will not face charges there is nothing to delay phase two of the inquiry, scheduled to start on Jan. 19, 2009.

RCMP assistant commissioner Al MacIntyre said Friday at the press conference that the force has made a number of changes to its Taser policies in terms of "training, practices and reporting requirements."

"We are certainly open to making further improvements," he said.

Some of the changes made include:

• Restricting the use of Tasers to incidents involving threats to officers or public safety.
• Requiring RCMP officers to be re-certified annually on the use of Tasers.
• Testing of the weapons themselves.
• Ongoing analysis of reporting on Taser usage.