Use of Taser police on boy, 11, interviewed

West Vancouver police investigating the use of an agent of a Taser for a boy of 11 years in a group Thursday last to Prince George, b.c., that the officer less than two years of experience on the force and was placed on administrative tasks.

Case of the boy and the ensuing investigation of the RCMP in Prince George, by the service Police of West Vancouver are already raising concerns among critics.

Members of the Department of Police of West Vancouver arrived in Prince George, on Sunday, three days after the incident, to begin the investigation. The Ministry says it plans to make an initial public statement later Monday.

Little is known about the incident except the details contained in a brief statement issued by Prince George RCMP Supt. Brenda Butterworth-Carr on Friday.

The statement said the boy is a suspect in the murder of a man of 37 years, and a Taser was used in his arrest. Officers found the boy within a group of House next to the scene of the crime, and when he left, he was shocked with electric pistol.

The unidentified boy was transported to the hospital for evaluation and then placed in detention, police said Friday. The victim of aggression is recovering from his injuries.

But Thomas Braidwood, the former Chief of investigation of British Colombia on the use of the police Taser and the death of Robert Dziekanski, says that the case is another reminder that the police should consider not police.

Justice Thomas Braidwood, left, discusses his final report on the death of Robert Dziekanski. At the hearing of June 2010 in Vancouver, said shameful Braidwood led by constables led to the death of the Polish immigrant. Andy Clark/Reuters.

"I did not suggest a moment that it is or was any coverups," but there is always a suspicion of it." But I hope that they get with it and set up the independent tribunal that I have said, Braidwood said.

Butterworth-Carr has stated that she supports the idea of an independent tribunal, investigate incidents of this kind, but it was not possible under the current regulations.

"I know there is a problem with respect to the fact that it is another police investigating US Agency, but it is us." And certainly, if we had an independent, as is that Alberta is absolutely, I think that this would be a great thing to have in place. ?

Ellen Turpel-Lafond, representative of British Colombia for children and young people, said the onus to the province to ensure the safety of children in foster home or group homes, and that is why she said it will conduct its own review of the incident.

"Police protocol is, if it is a child, there is a review. "But my question is not if the appropriate police procedures were used, but why we use a Taser on a child in the first place?"She said.

"When we think about what is a very young child, vulnerable, 11 years old, living away from home, in a group home, I don't see a more vulnerable child," she said.

The BC Civil Liberties Association has also called for the police to release more information about the incident and why a Taser was used on a child.

Criminologist at Simon Fraser University David MacAlister asserts that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the conduct of the officers until more details emerge. But he believes that the boy is the youngest ever to be shocked with electric pistol by the RCMP to the Canada.

He noted that, in the final report of Braidwood on the use of the Taser, said there is a concern of the police using batons on people who are particularly thin because there is only a thin layer between their skin and heart.

Braidwood was appointed by the Government of the to oversee an investigation into the use of Tasers or conducted energy weapons in the province and to make recommendations on their appropriate use. He also conducted an investigation into the death of Dziekanski, an immigrant Polish that shocked several times with a weapon at the Vancouver airport.

The gendarmes have been violently criticized the use of Tasers since the death of Dziekanski.

With the files by the Canadian Press return to the accessibility links

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