Poland criticized Canadian police today 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 (40) after he became abusive at Vancouver international airport a month ago.
Robert Dziekanski is seen in the arrivals area of the Vancouver airport in a still from a video released last night. Canadian police shot him with a Taser. He later died.
The video, taken by a bystander at the airport, initially shows a sweating and upset Mr 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.
Within 30 seconds of arriving on the scene, police fired at least two shots from Taser stun guns at Mr Dziekanski, who had showed no signs of resisting arrest. He collapsed to the ground shrieking in agony. At least three policemen could then be seen kneeling on him. He died shortly afterwards.
Mr 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.
It is understood he panicked after failing to meet her. He had boarded a flight for the first time in Germany on the previous day.
Poland's ambassador to Canada said the video had deeply shocked him.
"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 said.
"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."
"We take the unintended death of any civilian very seriously," said Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Canadian Public Security Minister Stockwell Day. Ms Leclerc said it would be inappropriate to comment further until the police investigation was over.
The New Democratic Party said it was unhappy the Mounties were investigating the conduct of their own members. "There is a litany of cases in which serious errors have been made when the police investigate themselves," said spokesman Ian Capstick.
Sixteen Canadians are reported to have died in the past five years in Taser incidents.
Earlier this year the Mounties in British Columbia were heavily criticized for their account of how a police officer shot and killed a young man who had been arrested in 2005 for holding an open can of beer at a sports game.