Poland criticizes fatal Taser incident in Canada

OTTAWA — Poland criticized Canadian police Thursday for using stun guns to shoot an unarmed Polish man who then collapsed and died in an incident captured on a graphic video.

The video calls into question the official Royal Canadian Mounted Police account, which said officers fired Taser shots at Robert Dziekanski after he became abusive at the Vancouver, B.C., international airport on Oct. 14.

The video, taken by a bystander at the airport, initially shows a sweating and upset Dziekanski throwing a small table at a window in the luggage-retrieval section and shouting at airport staff.

By the time a team of four policemen arrived, he had calmed down and was standing still.

Police then fired at least two shots from Taser stun guns at the 40-year-old man, who collapsed to the ground shrieking in agony.

At least three policemen could then be seen kneeling on Dziekanski, who died shortly afterward.

Dziekanski, of Pieszyce, Poland, arrived at the airport 10 hours earlier — his first airplane flight to begin a new life with his mother in western Canada.

Dziekanski, who did not speak English, began acting erratically after not seeing his mother in the baggage area, a secure area she could not enter.

Piotr Ogrodzinski, Poland's ambassador to Canada, said Thursday that he was shocked by the video and said Poland wanted to learn all it could about a probe the Mounties have launched into the case.