Lawyer Probing Possible Legal Action Over Man’s Death at Vancouver Airport

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER – The lawyer for the family of a man who died after being shot with a Taser stun gun by RCMP at Vancouver International Airport says it’s beyond belief the 40-year-old Polish citizen stayed in the airport so long without attracting attention.

Walter Kosteckyj says he’s been hired by Robert Dziekanski’s mother to look into whether there is any legal action the family can take over the man’s death.

Dziekanski died on Oct. 14 during a confrontation with police hours after he arrived in Canada to begin living with his mother in Kamloops, B.C.

Though he arrived around 3 p.m. the day before, it wasn’t until early the next morning that he emerged into a public area at the airport.

Witnesses have said he was enraged and was shouting for help in Polish before police used a Taser to subdue him. A preliminary autopsy showed there were no signs of trauma, disease or any other obvious cause of death.

It’s not clear why or how Dziekanski remained in the secure area of Vancouver’s international arrivals terminal for so long, and the Vancouver Airport Authority says it is not commenting on the incident because of the ongoing police investigation.

Kosteckyj says he wants to wait for the results of toxicology tests and finish his own investigation before deciding on a course of action, but he says more details on what he has learned will come out a news conference on Thursday.