Sergeant thought Manon had pulse
Tells inquest she would have ordered CPR
The supervising officer who arrived on scene after Junior Manon was handcuffed told an inquest into his death Friday that she would have asked another officer to administer CPR had she known there was doubt the teenager was breathing.
A radio call to rush an ambulance was made at 6:45 p.m. on May 5, 2010, by an officer on scene who said it wasn’t known if the teen had a pulse. Detective Michelle Masters said she was unaware of the call. EMS arrived four minutes later.
Manon, 18, was lying on his side in handcuffs after a brief foot chase and violent struggle with Constable Michael Adams and Sgt. Stuart Blower that began at about 6:35 p.m. Masters testified there was a small amount of blood on the teen’s face.
Five other officers had attended, two of them taking turns to check Manon’s pulse on his neck. Then two more sergeants arrived. All of them had basic first aid training.
Masters says none of the officers applied CPR because she was told at first that Manon had a pulse. She says she advised the officers to put the teenager in a recovery position by bending his legs at the knees so he wouldn’t roll over on to his stomach. Masters talked briefly to Adams and Stuart and was on the phone advising a senior officer of what had happened when the ambulance arrived.
She told the inquest that had she known Manon had no pulse, she would have asked the officers to uncuff him and apply first aid.
Masters and her partner, Constable Candice Kennedy, weren’t on regular duty the night of Manon’s arrest, but like Adams and Blower, had picked up an extra shift working as TAVIS officers, a program run by the Toronto Police Service in high crime areas of the city. TAVIS stands for Toronto Anti-violence Intervention Strategy. And like Blower and Adams, the officers didn’t usually work together. Masters said she and Kennedy were in their cruiser behind Adams and Blower when they pulled Manon over for an expired temporary licence sticker. The two officers stopped briefly to make sure everything was all right. Kennedy, a bail compliance officer, testified Friday that she recognized Manon and his passenger, Kevin Faudder, and was returning to 31Division to check on the conditions of Manon’s bail when they got the call that the officers were chasing after the teen. They turned around and returned to the scene. Masters, who has been on the force since 1999, was a sergeant and as such, was the only officer among the four equipped with a stun gun.