Items

• Man dies after being tasered by police

  At 11:30 pm on Dec 7, 2015, EPS responded to a 911 call at an Edmonton residence, 120 Ave & 58 St. In the home, they observed a 49-year old man who was agitated and armed with a knife; the man's teenage son was there and had been heard calling for help during the confrontation (ASIRT 2015, 2017). The man's behavior was perceived as erratic and threatening (ASIRT reports), three officers discharged their conducted energy weapons, or Tasers, and the man was restrained and disarmed, additional units were called in by the police, recognizing the urgency of the situation. "Two minutes and 55 seconds later" he went into medical distress, officers performed first aid until EMS arrived (Edmonton Journal, 2017). The man was pronounced dead at the hospital. ASIRT opened an investigation in 2015. In 2017, they released their findings, which indicated that although the use of Tasers contributed to the cause of death, ASIRT concluded that the officers were acting appropriately given the circumstances. The chief medical examiner found the man died of “excited delirium syndrome” related to methamphetamine toxicity, ASIRT said. The struggle with police was considered “a significant contributory condition” in the death" (Edmonton Journal, 2017). **Archive note: the term 'excited delirium syndrome' has no clinical validation and is disproportionately used to describe men of colour who die in interactions with police. Several medical associations, including the American Psychological Association, have called for its discontinuation, see https://www.psychiatry.org/getattachment/7769e617-ee6a-4a89-829f-4fc71d831ce0/Position-Use-of-Term-Excited-Delirium.pdf . However, EPS continues to frequently use this term, usually to describe people who die after being tasered.**
• Man dies after being tasered by police

  On Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 11:09 p.m., members of the Edmonton Police Service came upon an altercation involving a man and a woman in the area of 106A Avenue and 96 Street in Edmonton. The officers grappled with the man, punching, kicking and kneeing him, and trying to get him in a choke hold. One officer pressed a conducted energy weapon against his lower right abdomen and discharged it for five seconds. He fell to the ground but broke off the weapon's probes and stood up. He tried to walk away towards the Mustard Seed Church. The same officer reloaded and fired again, hitting him in the back with a blast that continued for 28 seconds, until after the officers had got the man into handcuffs on the ground. Lying on his stomach, with his hands cuffed behind him, he continued to struggle. More police officers arrived. Emergency Medical Services was called to help removing the Taser darts from him. Face-down on the ground, he was turned slightly so he could breathe more easily. But his eyes began to flutter, he gasped and aspirated fluid. His breathing became rapid and shallow. He was then repositioned so that he was lying on his back, with his hands handcuffed in front of him. At that point he appeared to stop breathing all together. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital where he was declared brain dead and pronounced dead a week after the altercation with the police on October 30, with cause of death described as "Hypoxic/Ischemic Encephalopathy by the antecedent cause of excited delirium syndrome due to the underlying cause of methamphetamine toxicity" (Public Fatality Inquiry, 2016). A subsequent ASIRT investigation declined to recommend charges and found the officers' actions justified. A Public Fatality Inquiry recommended that "procedures for identifying and dealing with individuals exhibiting symptoms of excited delirium be set out in policies and procedures dealing with the police interaction with all individuals and not limited to those policies and procedures dealing with the use of force", and that police officers be trained to call for emergency medical assistance as soon as they identify that someone is experiencing excited delirium syndrome regardless of the need for police intervention (Public Fatality Inquiry, 2016).