[van-announce] Profiles of Vancouver Police Killings for IDAPB

[idapb idapb]

Ninth International Day Against Police Brutality

March through the streets of Vancouver
Tuesday, March 15th, 2005 
7:00 pm, at Victory Square 
on the corner of Hastings and Cambie

Resist Police Control - Fight For Freedom

Gerald Chenery - On December 26th, 2004, two Vancouver cops shot Gerald Chenery (a Nisga'a man) 12 times, killing him. The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) claims that Chenery charged at a police officer with a knife in each hand, and that she fired four shots at him, hitting him only once. Chenery then supposedly knocked the police officer to the ground and continued his attack while another cop shot him 10 more times, with most bullets hitting him in the back, and one bullet hitting each of his wrists. Chenery is said to have continued his assault despite his wounds, only to be shot once more and fall to the ground.

  Margaret Gisle, a sister of Chenery, was critical of how the police dealt with the killing: "I am disappointed in how the police have communicated with me and my family. The information that I have received about my brother's death has been what I read in the newspapers, and it makes me very upset that they don't tell us first."

Benny Matson - A coroner's inquest into the police custody death of Benny Matson began on October 12th, 2004. Matson's daughter said that there was no reason for police to arrest her father in May of 2002. 
  
An off-duty RCMP officer was upset that Matson's motorbike was boxing in his car outside a Granville Street hotel, and when VPD officers arrived, Matson went out the back door. One witness testified that he saw Matson stumble and fall, followed by a VPD officer with his gun drawn [Constable Reece Chalmers], who then kicked Matson in the head several times. Three other officers jumped on Matson, and the one with the gun drawn knelt on the back of Matson's neck and bounced up and down, while Matson said he couldn't breathe.

    According to another witness, a crowd had gathered and someone yelled "Hey, you're going to kill him!"

  A third person said she got out of her car to witness the attack on Matson, because "There was just a sense that something was not right."

  The VPD's internal investigation determined that the officers acted appropriately and the use of force was reasonable. A crown counsel examined the VPD's case and laid no charges.

  An autopsy reported six to eight injuries on Matson's body, three leaving marks on his head. The report concluded that Matson died from choking due to the officer's restraint.     

  Despite this evidence and witness testimony, the coroner's jury ruled that Matson's death was an accident.

Robert Wayne Bagnell and Roman Andreichikov - On June 23, 2004, Robert Wayne Bagnell died in a Vancouver hotel, after been shocked with 50,000 volts of electricity by a police officer using a taser gun. 

  Roman Andreichikov died on May 1st, 2004, in another hotel after he was tasered while three police officers were on top of him, holding him down. Andreichikov said that he couldn't breathe, but an officer responded by saying "If you're mumbling, you're still breathing."

Jeff Berg - In January of 2005, the adjudicator in the Police Complaint Commission Public Hearing of Constable David Bruce-Thomas determined that the Vancouver police officer did not use excessive force in arresting Jeff Berg on October 22nd of 2002. 

  Berg sustained at least ten separate injuries to his face, head and neck during the arrest, and later died. According to witnesses and a pathologist, Berg was kicked several times while he was lying on the ground.

  Constable Bruce-Thomas had a documented record of violence as of October 22nd, 2000, having been found guilty of abusing his authority in assaulting a woman in an alley a few years prior. She successfully sued him for damages for assault and battery. 

  On December 18th, 2000, Bruce-Thomas asked his Chief Constable to erase the abuse of authority conviction from his disciplinary record. After a recommendation from the VPD's Internal Investigation Section, then Chief Constable Blythe did so on January 30, 2001.

Frank Paul - In March of 2004, British Columbia Solicitor General Rich Coleman refused a formal request from the province's Police Complaint Commissioner to hold a public inquiry into the death of Frank Joseph Paul, a Mi'kmaq.

  In the past, Coleman expressed worries that a public inquest of Paul's death would raise an outcry around police racism.

  Paul died on December 6th, 1998, after a Vancouver police officer and a jail guard dragged his rain-soaked and unconscious body out of the Vancouver jail and dumped him in a nearby alley, where he froze to death. The VPD imposed a two day suspension on the jail sergeant for "discreditable conduct" and a one day suspension on the police officer for "neglect of duty".

  Crown counsel examined the case five times and never laid charges. 

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