Langley RCMP kill unarmed (and seriously wounded) man with taser

Another day, another taser death. Who's still counting all taser deaths?

A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.

If this man was seriously bleeding from a chest wound, then why would someone taser him? Is having crashed through a window any reason to taser someone to death?

RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.

That's quite the stretch, "following an armed robbery". Is the account of one eyewitness enough to taser somebody to death?

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.

Did the woman throw this guy out? Then why taser the guy and not the woman?

With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.

What do you mean, despite? If I was naked and bleeding like hell I wouldn't consider going for a drink or see a movie; I would go inside, call an ambulance and if possible get dressed. What's so weird about that reaction?

[Thiessen] said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.

Does anyone else have a Robert Dziekanski deja-vu here? Robert was still alive when he was arrested. But not much later he was dead, thanks to the great work of the RCMP.

Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.

Well, problem solved then. It was all the woman's fault. How wonderful to turn the single reason for tasering the now dead man (to protect the female) into the perfect scapegoat.

This story stinks, and I don't like it.

LINKS
- Canadian Press: Langley RCMP kill seriously wounded and unarmed man with taser
-Truth not Tasers: 371+ Taser deaths, and still counting...

Full Article follows, comments at the bottom.

PS: RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen says that they killed the suspect "in the interest of public safety and the safety of police officers". Well done, Peter.

Wounded B.C. robbery suspect dies after being Tasered

LANGLEY, B.C. — A man is dead after he crashed through a second-storey window, naked and bleeding from a chest wound, and was hit with an RCMP Taser.

RCMP say they converged on a home in suburban Langley, B.C., Tuesday, following an armed robbery earlier in the day. A witness who saw a vehicle leaving the scene of the hold-up alerted police and followed the car to the home.

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said police heard a man and woman arguing inside the home, and then witnessed the man come through an upper-floor window and hit the ground.

With the gun used in the robbery nowhere in sight and the suspect trying to run inside the home despite a serious chest wound, police decided to use the Taser, Thiessen said.

He said the man was still alive when he was arrested but died en route to hospital.

Thiessen said a woman who was inside the home was arrested.

The RCMP Major Crimes Unit and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are investigating the incident with the oversight of Vancouver police.

The use of the shock weapons has been under scrutiny since Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after RCMP officers shocked him with a Taser at the Vancouver airport in October 2007.

A public inquiry into Dziekanski's death is scheduled to get underway in November.

Last week, Vancouver police used a Taser on a 16-year-old mother who refused to hand her one-month-old baby over to social workers.

Police said they acted because of fears the "mentally distraught" mother might smother the little boy during the three-hour standoff.