COCAINE LED TO DEATH

Coroner's Jury Rules: Drugs Killed Man, Not Taser-Gun Blasts

A coroner's inquest has ruled out a Taser gun as the reason
25-year-old Roman Andreichikov died after a struggle with police in
May 2004.

The coroner's jury deemed the Vancouver man's death "accidental"
following an inquiry to determine whether it was two blasts from a
stun gun or large amounts of crack cocaine in the gym trainer's system
that triggered heart failure.

His mother, Diana Andreichikov, said the family was upset by the
decision. They plan to file a complaint to the B.C. Police Complaints
Commission.

"This is just unbelievable," his mother said of the decision, which
was handed down Friday. "No apology, nothing."

"Everything that they did was wrong. I am absolutely sure they killed
him. It was a homicide," said the distraught Richmond woman.

The five-member jury recommended police use strap restraints to
control aggressive individuals during arrest. It advised that advanced
medical teams, rather than basic paramedics, should be called when a
suspect is high on cocaine and that blood samples should be taken as
soon as possible after such deaths to determine accurate drug levels.

Andreichikov died in custody on May 1 of last year after a friend,
worried that he was suicidal and looking to jump off the balcony of
his Granville Street apartment, called police.

When they arrived, he was sitting on the couch, moaning in a
cocaine-induced psychosis brought on by a drug binge. He complied with
police requests to lie face down, but later struggled as police tried
to cuff him.

Four officers were holding him down at the time of his heart
attack.

Const. Darren Hall testified he Tasered him with 50,000 volts into his
chest because the man was high on drugs and struggling with police.

He was revived by a paramedic with a shot of adrenaline, but suffered
a second fatal heart attack in the trauma room of St. Paul's Hospital.

During the inquest Thursday, forensic pathologist Dr. Laurel Gray
testified Andreichikov died of cardiac arrest triggered by cocaine
intoxication. She labelled his death "restraint-assisted cardiac arrest."

Toxicologist Dr. Stuart Huckin testified Andreichikov had a
potentially deadly amount of cocaine in his system: 11.2 milligrams of
cocaine in his blood, over the minimum lethal level.

Phil Rankin, a lawyer representing Andreichikov's family, suggested
Hall was intent on using his Taser from the moment he entered the
apartment and didn't consider less dangerous methods of restraint.