Video of Taser death at Vancouver airport to be released

An eyewitness's video recording of a man dying after being stunned with a Taser by police at Vancouver International Airport will likely be released to the public Wednesday evening.

Paul Pritchard (right), accompanied by his lawyer Paul Pearson, at a recent press conference that he feels police are trying to manipulate the truth.
(CBC)

The video will set the record straight on what happened early in the morning hours of Oct. 14, when Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver airport, Paul Pritchard said.

Previously, Pritchard said his recording showed how seconds after police arrived at the airport departure lounge, they decided to use the Taser to subdue a distressed and angry Dziekanski without attempting to speak to him or calm him down.

After police subdued Dziekanski with the Taser and handcuffed him on the ground, the video shows how one officer in the video put his entire body weight on Dziekanski's head and neck while another put his weight on Dziekanski's back, Pritchard said.

Minutes later Dziekanski was dead.

After reviewing the video, which he got back on Wednesday, Pritchard said he never wants to see it again. It is expected he will release it through the media Wednesday afternoon.

Pritchard recorded the incident with his digital camera, but afterwards he surrendered it to police for their investigation on a promise that they would return it within 48 hours. 

Robert Dziekanski with his mother Zofia Cisowski in Poland, before she immigrated to Canada.
(Global)

The next day, police told Pritchard they would not be returning the recording as promised.

RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr previously stated investigators kept the video longer than they anticipated in order to protect the integrity of the police investigation while they interviewed witnesses.

Fearing a cover-up by police, Pritchard then engaged a lawyer to start legal proceedings to reclaim the recording. Police returned the recording to him on Wednesday.

Robert Dziekanski, 40, died on Oct. 14, hours after he arrived at Vancouver International Airport. He was on his way to Kamloops to live with his mother in the B.C. interior.

The Polish immigrant arrived from Europe the previous day around 4 p.m., but for some unknown reason he did not clear customs until after midnight.

Witnesses have told CBC that Dziekanski became angry after he emerged from the customs area into the international arrivals lounge, and he began banging on equipment and shouting.

Dziekanski's mother had already returned home to Kamloops after waiting for several hours at the airport. She claims airport officials offered her no help locating her son.

Witnesses told CBC News they tried to speak to Dziekanski to calm him down but he did not speak English. Before police arrived, no airport staff attempted to help Dziekanski or calm him down, the witnesses said.

The RCMP's integrated homicide investigation team, the B.C. coroner's service, the Vancouver International Airport Authority and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP are each conducting their own investigations into the incident.