Family dissatisfied with SIU probe
Tasered man died from acute cocaine toxicity, watchdog said
Days after Ontario’s police watchdog released a report concluding a man Tasered multiple times by Toronto police died of acute cocaine toxicity, his family is demanding a more in-depth examination of his cause of death and greater detail about his clash with officers.
Rodrigo Almonacid Gonzalez, 43, died Nov. 7, 2015, one day after an interaction with Toronto police that ended with two officers deploying their conducted energy weapons, better known as Tasers, eight times while Gonzalez was in the bathtub in his family’s west-end apartment.
Last week, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit cleared the officers involved in Gonzalez’s death, saying there was no evidence of excessive force by the police.
While SIU director Tony Loparco said he was initially alarmed by the multiple and overlapping Taser discharges, a forensic pathologist found Gonzalez died of complications of acute cocaine toxicity, a conclusion based on a cardiological examination and a toxicological analysis.
“The post-mortem report did not indicate that (Taser) discharges played any role in the death,” Loparco said.
Gonzalez’s wife and mother say the slight, otherwise healthy father of two should not have died that night and want more information to be released about the cause of death.
“The family wants a coroner’s inquest. They want an investigation into the cause of death, they don’t accept the SIU’s opinion and conclusions that it was cocaine toxicity,” said Kevin Wolf, the Gonzalez family lawyer.
Coroner’s inquests are typically, though not always, called in cases where someone dies as the result of a police interaction. Under the province’s Coroner’s Act, inquests are mandatory when a person dies while in custody or detained by police, but it’s up to the discretion of a coroner to determine if the person was detained, something that is not always clear cut.
Further complicating this case could be the conclusion that Gonzalez died as a result of cocaine toxicity, not police action.
Cheryl Mahyr, spokesperson for Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner, said in an email Wednesday that the office had just received the SIU report and no decision had yet been made. In an interview with the Star this week, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Gonzalez’s wife Susana Chavarria said she has not been able to overcome the guilt she has about her husband’s death.
On the night of Nov. 6, she became angry after realizing he had been drinking.
They got in an argument when she threatened to leave the apartment; when Gonzalez told her she couldn’t leave, she called police, something she had done before. She said her husband was a good man and they had a great relationship, the only problem being the fact that he drank. She said she never saw him doing cocaine.
“I made that call to punish my husband for drinking,” she said. “Now I always say, ‘Why did I call the police?’ ”
According to the SIU, police were called to the scene by a panicked 911 call that suddenly cut off. Because of that, the first officer arriving was concerned for the safety of the caller; when he heard noises from the bathroom, he was initially concerned she was inside being assaulted.
The SIU report states the officer noticed the apartment was dimly lit and that a witness told police Gonzalez had “gone on a rampage” and recently consumed cocaine.
Chavarria said she could not recall exactly what she told the 911 dispatcher, but stressed she didn’t say he was dangerous or armed. She says she cut off the call herself, regretting having made it.
Before police arrived, she and Gonzalez’s mother, Nancy Gonzalez — who lives in a separate apartment in the same building — met up for a walk so Chavarria could get some air. They saw police, then an ambulance, then members of the Emergency Task Force (ETF), carrying a battering ram and shields.
Chavarria and Nancy Gonzalez say they were confused about why the tactical unit was necessary. According to the SIU, ETF was called in because officers were dealing with an individual who had barricaded himself in the bathroom.
The women say that, as more offi- cers entered the apartment, they were not allowed inside, and claim they told officers they could try to de-escalate the situation by speaking to Gonzalez, who is originally from Chile, in his native Spanish.
Both women feel police could have simply left Gonzalez alone in the bathroom instead of forcing their way inside. According to the SIU, officers forced their way in after unsuccessful attempts to negotiate.
When they drilled a hole through the bathroom door, officers said they could see he had blood on his hands, head and face though was not actively bleeding. Soon after, they became concerned he had ingested noxious substances. When police then forced their way in, one officer claims he could see that Gonzalez was holding a “four- to six-inch screwdriver.” In response, the officer raised his shield and shoved Gonzalez backward.
Gonzalez then “began lashing out and punching the officers,” according to the SIU, prompting two officers to Taser Gonzalez eight times. The initial strikes did not have much effect, according to the SIU.
The family denies Gonzalez posed a threat or had a weapon, saying it’s not clear from the SIU news release if a screw driver was recovered. Loparco noted in the release that the “accounts of the witness officers are somewhat unclear on a key detail as to whether (Gonzalez) was in possession of an object that could have been used as a weapon.”
But he said it was “conceivable that he did in fact have such an object,” saying photos of the scene show the bathroom was destroyed — damage the family said arose from the forced entry and subsequent interaction.
Asked about the case last week, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said his officers acted lawfully, as shown by the SIU’s investigation. Saunders said the death was not a direct result of the use of the Tasers.
Wolf, who does not yet have a copy of the toxicology report, said the family would like more information about what the physiological impact of Taser strikes may have been on Gonzalez, particularly because he was in four to six inches of water at the time. They wonder if that could have amplified the Taser strikes.
Loparco, too, flagged the fact that Gonzalez was wet, but said his concerns were assuaged by the post mortem conclusion. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca.
“I made that call to punish my husband for drinking. Now I always say, ‘Why did I call the police?’ ” SUSANA CHAVARRIA WIFE OF TASERED MAN