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Diotte | Jeffrey Pringle strip-searched
| Police tapes
| Chief goes on leave
| Randy Fryingpan | No
name case | Edmonton
police on U.S. State Department Bad Cop list for violating human
rights | 2005: Inquiries
| Chief Da Costa responds
to racist e-mail inside force
-
- Witnesses saw 'copter
- Fatality inquiry
testimonies contradict cops
By SHANE HOLLADAY, EDMONTON
SUN, Friday, December 12, 2003
Three independent witnesses
told a fatality inquiry yesterday they saw a mystery chopper
circling before two men fell to their deaths - despite contrary
claims by the RCMP.
The inquiry is looking into
the Sept. 24, 1999, deaths of Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham,
15, who plunged from a fourth-floor balcony during a police raid
at 12925 65 St.
The surprise raid was planned
as part of an operation targeting an alleged major drug gang.
As tactical officers battered
down the apartment door, a flash-bang concussion device was fired
at the balcony.
A second device was thrown
into the suite and detonated after the door was knocked in. Miller
and Pham fell from the balcony during the raid.
Thinh Duc Vu, now 33, was arrested
in the morning raid.
Vu said yesterday he was halfway
onto the balcony when he saw a "smoke-bomb" fly past
him and strike the railing with a loud noise.
He had just seen Pham and Miller
clambering onto the railing, said Vu. He then turned to see where
the object came from, he said.
"I turned back and they
were already gone," Vu said. "Then I looked up in the
air and I saw a helicopter."
It was about 15 metres away
with its rear doors open, he said. Behind the pilot were two
people, and Vu said he thought they had guns.
"That's when I was scared,
I lied down and put my hands on my head. At first I thought they
shot those two guys, that's why I was really scared and I lied
down."
Charges against Vu were later
stayed by the Crown, but he was in the Edmonton Remand Centre
yesterday pending an immigration hearing.
On Nov. 26, Mounties told a
provincial court there are no records of a helicopter being at
the raid at that time, although there might have been one called
to the scene later.
Cody White Wolf, 47, who saw
events from his apartment suite in the same building, said the
helicopter was present during the entire raid.
"It was circling,"
he said.
White Wolf said the helicopter
was hovering at about the height of the building's roof when
an officer in the parking lot fired a flash-bang into the suite.
White Wolf also said he saw
a person with a video camera - who arrived with police - standing
behind the same officer who fired the device into the suite.
Mary Koska, 81, said she was
taking out her garbage when she heard two loud bangs and saw
Pham and Miller plunge to their deaths.
She said she also saw the helicopter.
"I was afraid it was going
to land in my yard," said Koska, who lives alone in her
home near the apartment building.
Koska said she saw the helicopter
come in just below the roof of the building. "It was circling
around before that."
Tom Engel, the lawyer representing
the Miller family, said he will make an application today to
have all the people who were in the helicopter named and called
to testify.
Cop details flash-bang
use in raid, inquiry hears
By SHANE HOLLADAY, EDMONTON
SUN, Dec. 16, 2003
The cop who lobbed a
flash-bang during a police raid in which two men plunged to their
deaths was told to throw the device if the balcony was empty,
a fatality inquiry heard yesterday.
Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham,
15, plunged from a fourth-floor balcony during a raid at 12925
65 St. on Sept. 24, 1999. The raid was part of an operation targeting
an alleged major drug gang.
Const. Ken Brander, team leader
of the tactical unit which conducted the raid, told the fatality
inquiry he gave an officer instructions about lobbing the device.
"If it's an empty balcony
when he goes to deploy it, I told him to deploy it at the level
of the railing," said Brander. "I said, hopefully it
would go off in the general area of the railing. If it goes off
on the balcony, that's no problem either. If the balcony is clear
and he can see it."
The inquiry heard two flash-bang
devices were detonated during the raid. Tom Engel, the lawyer
for the Miller family, contends a flash-bang played a role in
the fatal plunge of the two young men. Intelligence given to
the tactical unit about the suite was abundant, Brander said,
and included a "likelihood" there would be guns inside.
Officers were told it was "a
place to flop for the night, a place to store your drugs or to
store your weapons," he said. And given information that
gang members were there, Brander said, this would have led the
officers to "step up" their tactics.
He also dismissed claims by
three independent witnesses who said they saw a helicopter present,
saying he was on the balcony as it concluded and saw no such
aircraft.
Cameraman saw little
of fatal bust
By LORI COOLICAN, EDMONTON
SUN, December 17, 2003
The mysterious cameraman
who taped a police raid in which two men fell to their deaths
stepped out of the shadows at a fatality inquiry yesterday.
He turned out to be Gary Kinaschuk,
a civilian videographer who works for Edmonton police - the same
man identified during earlier testimony by a city cop who didn't
recognize him in a photograph of the scene.
The video he captured as police
stormed a fourth-floor suite at 12925 65 St. on Sept. 24, 1999,
doesn't show much, Kinaschuk testified yesterday.
"We barely had an opportunity
to catch up to the tail end, basically," he said. "I
even had a hard time hearing what was going on."
Kinaschuk and his assistant
were supposed to accompany a tactical squad as they carried out
a warrant during a citywide bust in the hope of using the footage
in training videos. But they arrived late because the squad accidentally
left them behind at RCMP K-Division headquarters after a briefing
on the morning of the raid, he said.
Kinaschuk said he was allowed
closer to the action than he'd expected, but he had to wait outside
the suite while the people inside were being arrested. An RCMP
officer closed the door so they couldn't see anything.
Meanwhile, Adam Miller, 21,
and Huu Pham, 15, plunged from the balcony. A lawyer for Miller's
family contends they fell because a flash-bang device was detonated
near them as they tried to climb down.
Kinaschuk said he returned
to the building's parking lot when he heard paramedics were working
on two injured people there. He didn't film their fall from the
balcony.
Judge Leo Wenden is considering
applications by the Sun and the CBC to allow reporters to be
present as observers during closed-door portions of the hearing.
Tac-team cop denies leg
whack excessive
By DAN PALMER, EDMONTON
SUN, December 18, 2003
A city police tactical
team member told a fatality inquiry yesterday that the "leg
stun" he gave a man during a 1999 police raid wasn't excessive
use of force.
"If you're expecting us
to get down on our knees and beg them to get down, that's not
going to happen," Const. Adam Morrison told the inquiry,
as he explained how he used his leg to strike another man's leg
on a sofa. The man wouldn't listen to police directions to get
down, he said.
"You have to get everybody
down and under control," added Morrison, pointing out that
in such cases officers often don't know whether people in the
room have weapons hidden.
Morrison was testifying during
an inquiry into the deaths of Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham,
15, who both plunged from a fourth-floor balcony during a raid
at 12925 65 St. Sept. 24, 1999.
The raid was part of an operation
targeting an alleged major drug gang.
Morrison said the "leg
stun" came after he rammed the door to get inside the suite.
Morrison said it took him about five or six tries with his 35-pound
ram to open the door.
"Unfortunately that day
I had the small ram," said Morrison, who backed away from
the door once it was open to let other police officers inside.
City police Det. Rick Bandura,
who was a member of the tactical team in 1999, later testified
he left the suite and went outside next to Miller.
While he was outside, Bandura
said he also saw a helicopter above the apartment, which was
visible for about 30 seconds.
"There was no great deal
of hovering," said Bandura. Bandura added he surmised the
chopper was "a piece of support equipment."
The inquiry is expected to
continue today.
Flash-bang evidence sheds
little light
By SHANE HOLLADAY, EDMONTON
SUN, December 19, 2003
Flash-bang residue tests
on the clothing of a teen who plunged to his death from a balcony
during a police raid were inconclusive, a fatality inquiry heard
yesterday.
The inquiry into the Sept.
24, 1999, deaths of Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham, 15, who plunged
from a fourth-floor balcony at 12925 65 St., heard that a police
dog handler saw Pham wearing a T-shirt and track pants moments
before he died. But the forensics officer who collected Pham's
belongings for evidence said yesterday he only found the boy's
pants.
"When I received the bag,
the top was open," said Const. Steve Jones.
When questioned by Tom Engel,
the lawyer for the Miller family, Jones said he agreed it would
be "highly irregular" for a T-shirt not to be turned
over to him in light of the dog handler's statement.
Two flash-bangs were used in
the raid - one was tossed in the front door and another towards
the balcony. Engel says the diversionary devices may have played
a role in the deaths of the young men. But forensics Const. Dave
Bittman told the inquiry he found no flash-bang residue on the
balcony.
Bittman was called to the scene
at 10:40 a.m. that day, but he and Jones could not get into the
suite until 12:15 p.m.
After about 35 minutes of examination,
they left. But Bittman was called back to re-examine the balcony
by a senior officer. He returned at 2:25 p.m. and spent about
20 minutes studying the balcony, he said.
"Directly on the floor,
on the carpet and on the linoleum, was flash-bang residue,"
he said. "That is what I was looking for. This was my first
exposure to flash-bang residue."
Bittman said he took a sample
of the residue from the kitchen floor for comparison.
"There was nothing on
that balcony which was consistent with the residue on the floor."
Engel suggested evidence may
have been contaminated by the presence of other cops, who may
have been on the balcony between Bittman's inspections.
"To my knowledge, nothing
had been changed or altered on that balcony with respect to residue,"
Bittman said.
-
- Teen had T-shirt, death
probe told
- Article of clothing
has not been recovered
By SHANE HOLLADAY, EDMONTON
SUN, December 20, 2003
The city cop who saw
Huu Pham plunge to his death during a police raid told a fatality
inquiry yesterday that the boy was wearing a T-shirt - a piece
of evidence forensic experts have never recovered.
"I remember that very
clearly," said city police dog handler Const. Dave Monson,
referring to the plunge.
"I thought the Asian man
had on black sweat pants and a T-shirt."
The inquiry is looking into
the deaths of Pham, 15, and Adam Miller, 21, who died Sept. 24,
1999, when they plunged from a fourth-floor balcony at 12925
65 St. Monson was near the cop who lobbed a flash-bang device
towards the balcony.
"I saw the motion and
I knew what was happening, but I wasn't watching him do it, only
through my peripheral vision." He was not in a position
to see the balcony, he said.
City police forensics Const.
Steve Jones said Thursday he was given a bag of Pham's personal
items to take as evidence, but that bag didn't contain a T-shirt.
Jones testified he sent the pants he found in the bag, which
was open, to an RCMP lab for tests.
The pants were examined for
traces of flash-bang residue, but the results were inconclusive,
the inquiry heard.
Monson told the inquiry he
was in a carport under the building during the raid. A couple
of seconds after the flash-bang went off, he saw Pham and Miller
hit the pavement. Pham landed closest to him, he said.
"I only saw the last eight
or 10 feet of the fall," he said. "I thought we had
two people trying to escape."
Monson said he quickly realized
they were seriously injured and as other officers arrived, he
backed off. He then returned the dog to his car.
Other than when he talked to
his lawyer recently, Monson said yesterday was the first time
he has been officially asked about what he saw. He said he wasn't
interviewed by homicide detectives, although he knew about an
investigation.
Const. Mike Garth said at the
inquiry yesterday he remembered Pham wore only pants - no shirt.
Garth is now a city police officer, but was a tactical paramedic
on the raid.
"I asked two of the (city
police) members to start cutting off his clothes so I could assess
his injuries," said Garth.
"If he was wearing pants
and a T-shirt, everything would have been cut off."
Garth admitted during questioning
by Tom Engel, lawyer for the Miller family, that he was advised
before testifying that the absence of Pham's shirt was an issue
at the inquiry.
"In terms of clothing,
I don't know what happened to the clothing," said Garth.
The inquiry also heard from
Det. Brian Serbin, a city police officer who was aboard the RCMP
chopper that was in the air during the raid. He said the helicopter
was hovering northwest of the city when the raid was launched.
"Categorically, we were
not at the site when this would have transpired," he said.
Fatal falls from
balcony shocked police officer, inquiry hears
1999
sweep of 40 Edmonton homes checked for drug trafficking
David Howell, The Edmonton
Journal, December 09, 2003
EDMONTON - Moments after a
city police tactical unit burst into a fourth-floor apartment
suite using a steel ram and "flash-bang" diversionary
devices, Sgt. John Lamb heard an unexpected call on his radio.
An officer in the parking lot
below was asking for medical assistance. Lamb thought someone
may have been bitten by a police dog or hit by the hard shell
of a flash-bang device detonated outside.
But when he looked down from
the apartment's bedroom window, he saw two bodies sprawled on
the pavement.
"It caught me off-guard,"
Lamb told a fatality inquiry Monday.
"I was shocked by that.
At that time, I still wasn't sure where they came from."
The inquiry is investigating
the deaths of Adam Stanley Miller, 21, of Edmonton, and Huu Dinh
Pham, 15, of Calgary.
Both died of massive head injuries
after falling from a balcony railing during the Sept. 24, 1999,
police raid on the apartment at 12925 65th St.
The incident occurred during
a sweep by 300 police officers at 40 Edmonton homes and businesses
that led to dozens of arrests on charges of cocaine trafficking
and membership in a criminal gang.
Lamb described the operation
at the apartment building as a high-risk execution of a search
warrant.
The suite was a known safe
house used by members of a violent gang involved in the drug
trade.
The tactical team's eight members
expected to encounter firearms and were armed themselves, mostly
with submachine guns, Lamb testified. They wore helmets and heavy
vests.
About 10:20 a.m., they entered
the building and silently climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.
On Lamb's instruction, one
officer started bashing a steel ram into the suite's door. The
plan was to have an officer in the parking lot below detonate
a flash-bang at the same time.
The door had already been rammed
twice when the flash-bang went off outside. After three to five
rams, the door opened and officers rushed into the suite, yelling
"Police!"
Another flash-bang was detonated
inside the suite, near the kitchen.
Police found two people in
the bedroom and four more in the living room. Lamb, the last
officer into the suite, said he didn't know at the time anybody
had been on the balcony.
After the radio call from below,
an emergency medical technician who was backing up the tactical
unit rushed down to the parking lot and began administering first
aid.
But even from four floors up,
"it didn't look good for the two people lying outside,"
Lamb said.
Under cross-examination, Lamb
said that until the two men became victims, he considered the
raid a success.
"I truly believe that
if we were to do it again today, I'd do it the same way."
Miller and Pham were taken
by ambulance to the University Hospital. Pham died that afternoon.
Miller was kept alive until early the next day so his organs
could be donated.
Pathologist Dr. George Wood
said his autopsies revealed that Miller hit the ground on his
right side, with his hands outstretched to protect himself. Pham
landed on his back.
Neither body showed evidence
of burns or projectile injuries, Wood said.
The inquiry, before provincial
court Judge Leo Wenden, was closed to the public for part of
Monday while lawyers discussed documents related to police tactical
training and policy.
The hearing resumes Wednesday.
dhowell@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright 2003 Edmonton Journal
-
- 4 cops have records
- Look at cases individually:
police panel head
By ANDREA SANDS, CITY HALL
BUREAU, Dec. 7, 2003
Four Edmonton cops are
still serving on the force despite having criminal records, the
head of the Edmonton Police Commission has confirmed.
"As of this date there
are four officers who have criminal convictions, two of which
are for assault and two of which are for impaired driving,"
Martin Ignasiak told the Sun. "As far as I'm aware, none
of them are at this time suspended."
Ignasiak had no details about
when the cops were convicted, or whether the offences happened
while the officers were on duty.
"I think most police officers
understand that if they are convicted of an offence - whether
it be while engaged in their duties as a police officer or while
on their own time - that they are putting their careers at risk,"
Ignasiak said.
"There have been officers
who have been suspended with pay or without pay or even dismissed
from the service as a result of not only criminal convictions
but other (non-criminal) disciplinary matters."
Ignasiak agreed the public
perception is that police shouldn't have records for breaking
the law. But a blanket ban on cops with convictions is too inflexible,
he said.
"I think you have to look
at each case individually," he said.
"I think that people can
foresee that there may be circumstances under which an officer
may be convicted of an offence where, after reviewing all the
facts, it's clear that that officer can still contribute to the
Edmonton Police Service and be a valuable member of that service."
Police undergo a rigorous recruitment
process that includes security checks, he added.
Cops
might be criminals
EPS doesn't track officers with records
By DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON
SUN, November 28, 2003
The Edmonton Police Service
doesn't track the number of police officers with criminal records
still employed by the service.
EPS spokesman Dean Parthenis
said that in his experience, the most common work-related criminal
charge to be filed against an EPS officer is assault.
But, he added, the service
doesn't maintain a central record of which serving officers were
convicted of criminal offences.
"It's just never been
done," he said.
"The information exists.
It's just a matter of going out and finding it."
And both Parthenis and Edmonton
Police Association president Staff Sgt. Peter Ratcliff contend
the number of serving officers with criminal records would be
small.
"Probably less than five
or six," said Ratcliff. "I can think of one conviction
for a minor assault.
"We've had guys who were
up on more substantial charges, like sexual assault, who were
just fired."
Tom Engel chairs the police
conduct committee for the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association.
He said the fact EPS can't cite the number of serving officers
with criminal convictions suggests the service isn't concerned
with tracking "problem" officers.
"The police don't properly
handle complaints from the public against officers," he
said.
"They don't investigate
properly; the investigations are biased."
As an example, Engel cited
the recent EPS decision to launch an internal investigation into
the conduct of Const. Mike Wasylyshen, son of EPS Chief Bob Wasylyshen,
instead of calling in outside investigators.
Const. Wasylyshen was attacked
in a judge's written court ruling in September for leaving information
out of a search warrant application.
As a result, three drug trafficking
charges were thrown out of court.
"That's a pretty good
example of the overall cavalier attitude taken by the EPS,"
said Engel. "It's bunker mentality."
The EPS conducts an internal
investigation when one of its members has been charged with a
criminal offence. Depending on the severity of the crime, the
Police Act provides for penalties ranging from fines to termination
- over and above any court-imposed sentence.
Ratcliff said the association
is "concerned" whenever a police officer is charged
with a criminal offence unrelated to his job, and then punished
again under the Police Act.
The question of police with
criminal records came up in Vancouver this week, after a Vancouver
city police spokesman confirmed four serving officers had records
for assault.
The statement came just days
after six other Vancouver officers who were suspended with pay
pleaded guilty to the crime.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
