Taser victim had taken a lot of cocaine
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 5, 2006 | 2:52 PM PT
CBC News
A forensic pathologist says she couldn't tell whether police use of a Taser contributed to the death of 44-year-old Robert Bagnell in Vancouver more than two years ago.
Bagnell died after he was restrained and Tasered by police as they tried to remove him from a bathroom at a Granville Street hotel in June 2004.
Dr. Laurel Gray told a coroner's inquest on Tuesday that Bagnell had four times the lethal level of cocaine in his blood, and had also taken amphetamines.
Robert Bagnell died in a Granville Street hotel after being Tasered by police.
(CBC)
She testified his death was consistent with cardiac arrest due to cocaine-induced psychosis.
The inquest has also heard that some years before his death, Bagnell had open heart surgery and at the time of his death, his heart was enlarged.
Gray said both medical facts could have contributed to the man's death.
She also told the inquest that she found a series of 13 red marks on Bagnell's body —most of them in pairs about two centimetres apart.
Tasers deliver a 50,000-volt electric shock from up to 6.5 metres away.
(CBC)
The pathologist said she could not tell whether the marks were caused by a police Taser.
A police account of the fatal incident states that officers applied a Taser twice, and that Bagnell continued to struggle after being hit by the Taser.
Gray said if the Taser caused the cardiac arrest, Bagnell's heart would have stopped immediately after the 50,000 volts of electricity were applied.
The inquest is scheduled to last two weeks, with a total of 33 witnesses, including the dead man's mother from Prince Edward Island.
The Bagnell family has launched a lawsuit against the Vancouver Police Department, the officers involved and the maker and distributor of the Taser, with the hope of getting the device banned in British Columbia.
