RCMP use Taser on Chilliwack man during arrest

A Chilliwack, B.C., man was subdued by a Taser on Monday, just hours after the province's top Mountie said he was worried his officers won't use Tasers when they need to in light of angry public reactions to the death of Robert Dziekanski.

RCMP officers went to a business located in the 45800 block of Airport Road in Chilliwack at around 3:30 p.m., where a man was reportedly acting erratically in the store.

A handcuffed man is loaded into an ambulance after RCMP used a Taser, pepper spray and their batons to subdue him at a store in Chilliwack Monday afternoon.
(Iain McIndoe)

The 29-year-old man became "extremely agitated, aggressive, and combative with the two responding officers," according to Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop, a media relations officer with the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP.

A violent struggle ensued and numerous methods of intervention — including pepper spray, Taser and baton — were used to try to subdue the man, Dunlop said.

He was arrested and taken to custody after several other backup officers arrived and assisted in controlling him, she said.

"The male did sustain injuries and has been transported to hospital for treatment of his injuries, as well as to assess his mental state," Dunlop said in a press release Monday evening.

Chilliwack RCMP's Serious Crime Section is investigating this incident, she said.

On Monday afternoon, Gary Bass, commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C., said he's worried that his officers could become "Taser shy" following public criticism over the use of a Taser on Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who died at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14.

A police officer demonstrates the use of a Taser gun.
(CBC)

Bass told CBC News on Monday that he's "concerned officers won't use Tasers for fear of having the same thing happen and force a new public outcry."

Withholding Tasers as a tool, and without evidence that a conducted energy weapon was responsible for Dziekanski's death, could put other people and RCMP members at risk, Bass argued.

"We are going to issue a directive to officers regarding the 'use of force' continuum that Tasers still fit in there," Bass said.

He said he would not want officers to respond with "more lethal force," meaning resorting to batons or guns.