Officer averts eyes as Dziekanski video plays

Mountie accused of perjury in man’s Taser death

One of the four RCMP officers involved in Robert Dziekanski’s death sat in B. C. Supreme Court Monday with his head bowed, as his perjury trial watched the video of the confrontation that left the Polish man dead.

The amateur recording, released a month after the October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport, fuelled a debate about Taser use and prompted a public inquiry in which the shaky video clip became a key piece of evidence.

The video is now at the heart of the trial of Const. Bill Bentley, who is accused of lying six times at the 2009 inquiry — primarily when he attempted to explain discrepancies between what he wrote in his police notes and told homicide investigators and what the video shows.

For example, Bentley claimed in his notes and police interviews Dziekanski screamed and came at the officers before the Taser was used and that two officers physically brought Dziekanski to the ground, but the video contradicts both of those assertions.

Bentley sat silently in the prisoner’s dock with his head down as the video played on at least a half dozen computer screens around the courtroom.

The video, which was broken up into several separate clips, begins before police were called to the international arrivals terminal at Vancouver’s airport, where Dziekanski was throwing furniture and using chairs to hold open an automatic door.

Dziekanski had arrived at the airport nearly 10 hours earlier after leaving his native Poland to live with his mother in Canada.

Four Mounties, including Bentley, responded to a 911 call from the airport. Bentley is the first officer to walk into the camera frame and can be heard asking his fellow officers about a Taser. According to a video of his testimony played Monday, Bentley told the inquiry he asked, “Do you have a Taser on?”

Bentley then hops over a railing and walks up to Dziekanski. He told the inquiry he was the first officer to speak with Dziekanski before another officer took over.

The video then shows the officers gather around Dziekanski, who throws his hands in the air and walks to a nearby desk. Dziekanski picked up a stapler before turning back toward the officers, Bentley told the inquiry.