Canada police under fire over Taser death

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Poland criticized Canadian police on Thursday for using stun guns to shoot an unarmed Polish man who then collapsed and died in an incident captured on a graphic video.

The video calls into question the official Royal Canadian Mounted Police account, which said officers fired Taser shots at Robert Dziekanski after he became abusive at the Vancouver, British Columbia, international airport a month ago.

The video, taken by a bystander at the airport, initially shows a sweating and upset Dziekanski throwing a small table at a window in the luggage retrieval section and shouting at airport staff. By the time a team of four policemen arrived, he had calmed down and was standing still.

Police then fired at least two shots from Taser stun guns at the 40-year-old man, who collapsed to the ground shrieking in agony. At least three policemen could then be seen kneeling on Dziekanski, who died shortly afterward.

Poland's ambassador to Canada said the video had deeply shocked him and said Warsaw wanted to learn all it could about a probe the Mounties have launched into the case.

"The reaction of the RCMP officers was unsuitable to the situation. What I've seen was that Mr. Dziekanski (was) a person who was agitated, frustrated, I think terrified, but not aggressive. He was not making a gesture that he intended to fight anybody," Piotr Ogrodzinski told Reuters.

"He didn't know what to do. In fact, he was in search (of) help. That is why it is a really very sad and deeply moving film to watch."

Dziekanski flew to Canada to live with his mother, who said she had told him to wait for her at the luggage belt. But this meant he never passed through the customs section to enter the main part of the airport, where she was waiting.