VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — The death of a Polish emigre after police stunned him with a taser at an airport here sparked a diplomatic incident, with Poland demanding full details of the subsequent investigation.
The Polish government issued a diplomatic note asking "Canadian authorities to provide us promptly with full and transparent results of the investigation of this tragic accident," Maciej Krych, Poland's consul general in this western Canadian city, told AFP.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, died on October 14 after a brief struggle with security guards and police, who were called after he started throwing things and screaming in the airport's arrival zone.
A preliminary coroner's report Friday showed there were no drugs or alcohol in Dziekanski's body, said the lawyer for Zofia Cisowski, the dead man's mother.
Dziekanski, a construction worker, had flown from Frankfurt to live with his mother in Canada. He spoke only Polish, had never travelled before and was "scared" and "stressed" by the journey, said the lawyer, Walter Kosteckyj.
Dziekanski waited for his mother in the airport's luggage area, but she was not allowed to enter the secure zone and could not find anyone to tell her if her son had arrived, said Kosteckyj. After several hours, she left.
A few feet away from her, on the other side of the security zone wall, Dziekanski waited for 10 hours, said the lawyer.
"It's unbelievable you have a guy sitting in what is supposed to be a secure area for 10 hours ... without immigration or airport authorities at least asking the guy or finding out what the problem is," he said.
When Dziekanski finally emerged into the public arrivals area, there was no one to meet him and it had been 25 hours since he left home, said Kosteckyj.
"He was not a sophisticated traveller... He was a fellow simply lost in an English-speaking world unable to communicate."
Police statements on October 14 said "he was sweating profusely, behaving irrationally, throwing chairs, tipping his luggage cart over, pounding on glass windows ... and screaming in what sounded like an eastern European language."
Documents obtained by CTV news showed that within two minutes after police arrived, they used a stun gun on Dziekanski. Ambulance attendants arrived 12 minutes later and were not able to revive him.
"Our Polish community (is) in a state of shock," said Krych.
A public inquest will be carried out, Jeff Dolan, the province's assistant deputy chief coroner, told AFP.
The death has fueled controversy about taser stun guns, which have been linked to other deaths in the country, including one in the same week as Dziekanski's.
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