The whole story here is in the quote: "I was laying on the bed by then and the corporal came in, or the sergeant, I forget which it was, and said to the guys, 'OK, get him because we got more important work to do on the street tonight,' " Mr. Lasser said.
So a Taser is used on an 82 year old with a very serious heart condition because the police are in a hurry! The cops condemn themselves in their own words. I would think that a Taser should not be used on a patient with a serious heart condition recovering from pneumonia. The outcome was fortunate for everyone that's the best that can be said.
Patient, 82, Tasered in his hospital bed
B. C. senior recovering from pneumonia pulls knife on staff
James Cowan , National Post, With Files From Canwest News ServicesPublished: Saturday, May 10, 2008
An 82-year-old former heart bypass patient was zapped three times with a Taser fired by the RCMP as he lay in a hospital bed in Kamloops, B. C.
But a spokeswoman for the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops said yesterday that police had no choice but to jolt Frank Lasser with the stun gun because he had a knife and posed a threat to hospital staff and his fellow patients.
Mr. Lasser, who requires a special oxygen device to breath and was recovering from pneumonia at the time of the incident, said he becomes delirious when he is unable to breathe.
Hospital staff said despite his health problems they were unable to restrain Mr. Lasser when he became agitated last Saturday and pulled an eight centimetre knife from his pocket, spokeswoman Darshan Lindsay said.
"This was a very serious situation and our staff did try to manage it, but they did the right thing by calling the RCMP," Ms. Lindsay said.
"The patient was physically threatening the staff and he posed a danger to the staff and his fellow patients."
Ms. Lindsay said both hospital medical staff and security attempted to subdue Mr. Lasser before police were called. The spokeswoman could not say how long the incident lasted nor how much time passed before the hospital contacted the RCMP.
When RCMP officers arrived they used a Taser to apply three separate electric shocks to Mr. Lasser's torso.
Mr. Lasser suffered bruising where the stun gun came in contact with his skin.
A woman who answered the phone at Mr. Lasser's home yesterday said he was not well enough to speak with the media.
In an interview with the CBC, Mr. Lasser said he could not explain why he did not drop the knife when confronted by the RCMP.
"I was laying on the bed by then and the corporal came in, or the sergeant, I forget which it was, and said to the guys, 'OK, get him because we got more important work to do on the street tonight,' " Mr. Lasser said.
"And then bang, bang, bang, three times with the laser. And I tell you, I never want that again."
Mr. Lasser, a former prison guard, contends police could have restrained him without using the Taser.
"They could have gone in there and taken an old man without any trouble at all," he told the CBC.
A RCMP spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment on the incident, saying the officer authorized to speak on the issue was taking the day off.
Corporal Scott Wilson told the CBC on Thursday that the officers had no other choice but to stun Mr. Lasser.
"Whether the person is 80 or 20, we are dealing with a person who had a deadly weapon in their hand," Cpl. Wilson said.
He said police could not use their pepper spray for fear of contaminating the whole hospital.
The incident involving Mr. Lasser comes the same week that a public inquiry into the use of Tasers began in Vancouver. The inquiry was called after Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died after being shocked with a stun gun at Vancouver International Airport last October.
Kevin Begg, a former Mountie and now a provincial civil servant, told the inquiry on Wednesday that police are becoming too reliant on Tasers to defuse tense situations.
"This is not how the government originally envisioned and endorsed the use of Tasers," Mr. Begg said.
jcowan@nationalpost.com
No comments:
Post a Comment