last link on the left › trevor grimolfson

Trevor Grimolfson | the Taser question | political reaction | Chief Boyd's statement

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team continues to investigate the death of a man Tasered by Edmonton police officers.

At around 11:00 a.m. on October 29th, 2008, a mischief call came in about a man threatening people and smashing windows with his fists at Dan's Pawnshop at 15347 Stony Plain Road.

Police discharged a Taser device twice at the man without apparent effect. The man came towards the two officers who then wrestled him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs.

The man lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation was turned over to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team – read more »

Events began when one man was attacked by another inside the Anarchy Tattoo Parlour, located two doors west of the pawn shop.

Patrick Saunders identified the man as "Trevor," someone he was to meet and work with to do some demolition work at the shop. An offer of $12 an hour placed through a temporary labour office brought the two men together.

Meeting Trevor inside the parlour, Saunders noticed a quantity of drugs and drug paraphernalia on a table. An uneasy feeling came over him.

"When I walked into the shop he looked kind of sketchy, hesitant, like he was high on something and sweating profusely," Saunders said.

"Cocaine ... crack paraphernalia everywhere in his store. He looked to be right just messed up.

"He was saying like, 'Bullets are flying. Bruce Lee's coming.' Like he was off his rocker.

"So I just kind of remained silent, waited and said, 'Where do I start work?'

"He kept moving like he was on drugs, you know. Then I see the drugs and I'm out of here.

"I just thought to myself, 'I'm getting the hell out of here,' " Saunder said.

"Then I got jumped. He just literally jumped me with everything he had. Started putting the boots to me, punching me, kicking me ... then I just fucking pushed him off me – gave him a good stiff shift."

Saunders left the shop with the man chasing him down the sidewalk. He called police from a nearby Cash Canada store.

Responding officers confronted the man who had now run inside the pawn shop, locking the door behind him.

Sheila Boddy told media that police arrived shortly after the altercation began, and that it took several officers to control the man. Boddy said she then heard several Taser shots.

"This guy comes over in a rampage, smashed at the door with his fist, took a couple of swings at the owner, then he went inside and started smashing the place up," Boddy said.

"When the police arrived, they couldn't even apprehend him and get him under control."

When Boddy was asked if officers fired more than twice, she said it was several times.

Saunders said police acted appropriately. "I'm glad they did," he said, adding he was scared for his life.

After the incident, Saunders spoke to a man who claimed he too had been attacked by the man earlier that morning. That incident was not reported to police.

Some at the scene figured the man went into cardiac arrest shortly after police subdued him.

Kristie Cardinal, a friend of the tasered man, said she saw him earlier in the morning. The woman noticed he was waving his arms a lot and she told him to calm down. Arriving later at the pawn shop she learned the man had died.

"That can't be," Cardinal said. "I just saw him this morning."

"It's a tough thing to find out one of your best friends got killed like that," Kristie's mother, Miranda Yellowdirt, said.

The two women walked away from the scene in disbelief.

Witnesses who saw the man earlier in the day described him as "agitated."

"He was erratic," said Norma Strelkov, who worked at the nearby Thrift Store and saw him at about 10:00 a.m. "He wasn't acting like any normal person would.

"He was waving his arms and taking giants steps, then taking sideways steps. He was obviously not aware of where he was or what he was doing," she said.

Michelle Furoy, manager of Jasper Place Liquor across the street, saw DVDs being thrown out of the pawn shop.

"Oh yes, you could hear the noise, you could hear it from inside the store. You could hear the banging and crashing. I'm sure there's a few TVs that went flying in there just from the noise.

"You could hear him screaming, he was destroying Dan's shop," she said.

One reported indicated the man had been banned from entering the liquor store.

Sherri Sheskey told media of what she saw.

"He was high on drugs ... hitting the air as if there was bees around him.

"It looked like bees were all around him ... you know that look. He was swinging his arms and – mad. He had this snarly look on his face."

Sheskey was asked if she felt use of the Taser was justified.

"Yes, yes yes ... I would have done it myself if I had one," Sheskey said.

Police would not comment on the man's identity or if he was known to them. They reported that injuries to the officers who struggled with him were slight.

"The CED was used twice to bring the gentleman under control, both times it had no effect," a police spokesman later said.

"He was threatening people ... inside the store, as well as breaking windows, breaking items within the store.

"The suspect ran at our officers. They wrestled him to the ground and were eventually able to put handcuffs on him but only after he resisted for several more minutes.

"It was at that point that he had lost consciousness."

"Although the Taser was deployed on two occasions from early reports, it would be premature to say the use of the Taser was a cause in relation to the death of this individual," Clif Purvis, ASIRT's civilian director, said while visiting the scene.

"It could be any number of things, totally separate from the deployment of the Taser," he added.

"He may have had a pre-existing condition, he may have fallen and hit his head, he may have ... I have no idea."

"We will independently look at the actions of the police officers involved in this incident and arrive at the truth in relation to what happened," Purvis said.

"We'll look into the entire incident, so not only the deployment of the Taser, but the actions of the police officers as they dealt with this individual."

An autopsy on the man's body took place on October 30th, 2008, but determining the cause of his death may take some time.

According to CBC Edmonton, police revised earlier statements and said the man was hit "at least twice."

"We need toxicology work done on the deceased's blood," Purvis said. "At this point, I'm not even prepared to say for sure that the Taser deployment was successful."

The incident marked the first time the independent provincial watchdog agency would look into a Taser-related death.

Friends of the deceased man were first to identify him as 38-year-old Trevor Grimolfson, originally from Selkirk, Manitoba. He had moved to Edmonton some eight to fifteen years ago.

The owner of MPW (Monster Pro Wrestling), a promotion company, and also operator of Big Daddy's at 9709 118 Avenue, Grimolfson had taken over the store on Stony Plain Road just a month before his death.

Friends and relatives remembered him as a man with a huge heart and a person willing to help friends in need.

However, CBC Edmonton quoted sources who said the man was associated with the Hells Angels.

The Edmonton Sun reported, quoting a police source, that Grimolfson was a passenger in a vehicle from which someone shot 27-year-old Erin Tilley.

Tilley died on December 7th, 2007, after the car she riding in was fired upon at the intersection of 95th Avenue and 156th Street. The driver of the vehicle took Tilley to hospital after dropping off at least one other passenger. The woman has refused to cooperate with police and Tilley's murder remains unsolved.

On October 17th, 2008, Grimolfson's SUV had been used in a mid-day shoot out between two vehicles at various locations in the city's west end.

Found driving the SUV was 28-year-old Mario Martel. He was charged with discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life, careless use/storage of a firearm, pointing a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, unauthorised possession of a restricted firearm, knowingly possessing a firearm, unauthorised possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle, possession of a loaded firearm, tampering with a firearm serial number, and two counts of possession of a firearm while prohibited.

The other vehicle involved, a green Honda Civic sporting bullet holes, was found abandoned behind a house on 106th Avenue and 154th Street.

At the time, investigators said the SUV was known to police both in Edmonton and Winnipeg.

CTV Edmonton contacted a friend of Trevor's who grew up with him in Manitoba. After speaking to those who witnessed the incident, Chris West took issue with statements that he was hit only twice with the Taser.

"He was hit numerous times. If there was that many cops there they should have tackled him," West said.

"Like Trevor is a big boy and he was irate, but I've watched him wrestle with a bunch of his brothers, me, and a bunch of other buddies ... and wrestle with us. We could take him down and we were a lot smaller than most Edmonton police."

West said he spent the evening after Trevor's death with the man's family and teenaged children.

"We're all going to be missing him and tell everybody 'Hey man I love him' and let's hope everybody gets over this."

"We're very shocked and we're very angry. We don't understand why they used a Taser," Melissa Bell, a relative of Trevor's, told the the Edmonton Journal.

"He was Tasered several times. They shouldn't be allowed to do that. It's killed quite a few people recently, hasn't it?"

"Our whole family is in shock," Bell told the Edmonton Sun.

"You see a news report and you see that police have Tasered your cousin. We are sad and very angry."

The Taser question

Edmonton police officers first began carrying Tasers in 2001. Out of the force's 1,400 officers, about 400 are currently trained to carry and use the device.

All Tasers contain a microchip which records the time and date it was used and the number of times it was fired. One police source said heart defibrillators deliver 5000 times the charge of a Taser.

There were 89 uses of the device in 2007, down from 130 occurrences in 2006 and 253 in 2005.

On March 23rd, 2004, Ronald Perry, 25, had a massive heart attack after police deployed a stun gun in an effort to restrain him.

The medical examiner's office stated Perry died of excited delirium, an uncommon state that can strike drug and alcohol abusers and make them overly aggressive, paranoid and filled with "superhuman" strength.

On December 24th, 2005, Alesandro Fiacco, 33, died on the way to the hospital after officers used a stun gun to subdue him. An autopsy declared he had died of a cocaine overdose.

Pathologist Dr. Graeme Dowling told the Edmonton Sun in June 2006 that there have been "no definitive cases where Tasers have actually killed anybody."

The condition "excited delirium" remains a controversial term, not found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, nor is it recognised by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association.

It remains a term primarily favoured by the U.S.-based National Association of Medical Examiners and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

The "excited delirium" term was first used in 1985 to describe a condition relating to acute cocaine intoxication, later expanded to include the use of PCP and methamphetamine.

The condition manifests itself as a combination of delirium, anxiety, hallucinations, disorientation, violent and bizarre behavior, insensitivity to pain, elevated body temperature, and superhuman strength.

Excited delirium arises most commonly in male subjects with a history of serious mental illness and/or acute or chronic drug abuse. Alcohol withdrawal or head trauma may also contribute to the condition.

The term became popular to explain deaths of individuals in police custody when Tasers have been used to subdue them.

Persons suffering excited delirium usually die of cardiac arrest. Medical examiners routinely list cause of death in such cases as a diagnosis of exclusion (per exclusionem), a condition reached by a process of eliminating other causes.

(See Wikipedia for more about the controversial condition.)

At the time of Grimolfson's death, the Edmonton Police Service website hosted a document of frequently asked questions about the stun gun that emits a high-voltage electrical charge through fired darts. While the document has since been removed, its contents can be read here »

Conducted Energy Device (TaserTM) – Frequently Asked Questions

What is a TaserTM/Conducted Energy Device (CED)?

Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) are tools developed to provide law enforcement, corrections and military personnel with an alternative method of control. More commonly known by the brand name TaserTM, CEDs are designed to temporarily incapacitate, confuse, delay or restrain a suspect in a variety of situations.

What kind of CED does the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) use?

EPS currently uses the TaserTM International brand X26 CED.

How does the CED work?

CEDs use electricity to induce involuntary muscle contractions that may cause temporary incapacitation. Shaped like a gun but battery operated, CEDs discharge two probes. The probes, when activated by an officer, deliver an electrical charge, which may immediately incapacitate the individual. As soon as the electrical charge is complete the person is able to walk, talk and function normally.

When did the EPS start using CEDs?

EPS began researching this technology in 2000 and started deploying CEDs in 2001.

Why does the EPS use the CED?

The CED is a control option to aid officers in dealing with violent, assaultive or actively resisting subjects. CEDs may reduce potential injury to the individual, bystanders or officers. The goal when using a CED is to subdue the suspect long enough to safely take the person into custody.

How often are CEDs used?

CEDs have been used to successfully resolve situations in which deadly force may have otherwise been authorized. In many cases the mere display of the device is sufficient to overcome an individual's willingness to fight or resist. The CED is an important tool for de-escalating a dangerous situation; it is used judiciously and with great regard for the safety of all involved. Less than 2% of all contact between police and suspects result in police using force.

How many ways can a CED be used?

There are three ways for a CED to be used:

1. An officer can display the CED to a subject to gain compliance;

2. An officer can deploy the CED, with probes that attach to a subject, conducting energy into the subject's body causing temporary large muscle contraction; and

3. An officer can use the CED in stun mode (does not cause large muscle contraction). The officer is looking to gain compliance through pain rather than muscle contraction. (Similar to OC spray).

Under which circumstances is the CED used?

CEDs are useful tools in specific instances for de-escalating dangerous situations and reducing injuries to citizens and officers. The EPS has taken great care to ensure the proper and appropriate use of CEDs through ongoing review of policies and procedures, supervision, training and management oversight.

What is the use-of-force model?

The EPS has a use-of-force model to assist police officers in understanding the options that are reasonable and lawfully authorized pursuant to the Criminal Code of Canada, in a variety of different circumstances.

What is Excited Delirium?

Excited Delirium is an acute medical condition that may be caused by drug overdose or a mental disorder. A subject suffering from Excited Delirium is often found engaging in dangerous and unpredictable behaviour, placing themselves and others at risk.

Excited Delirium is a medical emergency that can progress rapidly to death, and these situations demand immediate police and medical intervention. Prolonged struggles to physically control individuals suffering from Excited Delirium significantly increase the medical risk to the subject.

In order to reduce the chance of a prolonged struggle, the best course of action may be to use a CED, followed by proper restraint techniques that do not compromise breathing and a speedy medical response.

How many EPS officers are trained to use the CED?

EPS currently has over 1400 members; all are familiar with this tool. 400 officers are currently trained and therefore authorized to use the CED.

What methods are in place to ensure that officers use the equipment properly?

EPS has policy surrounding the training, deployment and use of the CED. Each officer authorized to use a CED must take a training course specific to the CED and pass a practical and written test during their training. Each use of the CED must be documented and reviewed by the deploying officer's supervisor and EPS use-of-force instructors.

What happens to officers who use this equipment improperly?

As with any complaint against the EPS or the actions of its members, complaints about the use of the CED are taken very seriously and investigated by the EPS Internal Affairs Section. Officers found to be using this equipment improperly could be subject to a number of different consequences ranging from loss of CED operator status to criminal charges.

How safe are CEDs?

CEDs are generally very safe to use. They are highly effective in helping officers achieve control over violent and resistive subjects while posing a very low risk of injury to the individual arrested. Further, they may reduce the number of injuries and deaths to both officers and subjects.

What does it feel like when someone is on the receiving end of a CED deployment?

CED causes fast muscle contraction in the subject's body. The feeling is similar to a static shock you could receive from a doorknob but on a much larger scale. To understand what the CED feels like, many EPS officers have personally been exposed to the effects of a CED deployment.

Can a CED deployment cause heart attacks?

There have been extensive tests done on CED devices. These tests have shown the CED is not powerful enough to affect a subject's heart.

Are there any side effects or long term damages after a CED deployment?

The most common side effect is consistent with what occurs after any extreme physical exertion: subjects may feel dazed for several seconds/minutes and may have a temporary tingling sensation.

The only known long-term risk from a CED deployment is the possibility of having small burn marks left on the skin. This is very dependent on skin tone and type and length of CED exposure.

What happens if you are on drugs and/or prescribed medications when you're subject to a CED deployment?

Drugs and/or alcohol, mental illness or extreme emotion do not change how the CED affects the body. However, there are types of drugs and/or mental illness that can contribute to a subject being in poor physical health. How well a subject's body handles physical stress can be dependent upon the health of that person. Poor health can cause medical issues when the body is placed under any type of stress.

Can you lose consciousness once you have been exposed to a CED deployment?

If both of the CED probes contact the subject's head or if the subject falls and hits his/her head, unconsciousness could result. EPS officers are trained to be aware of these situations and will seek medical assistance as soon as possible if there is any possibility this may have occurred.

What if you have metal in your body?

Metal in your body will not affect the CED, how it works, or its effects on the subject.

How many police agencies in Canada use CEDs?

73 law enforcement agencies.

Can the general public purchase a CED? Carry CED?

CEDs are prohibited weapons under the Criminal Code of Canada and as such are not available to the general public.

Has the CED helped save lives?

We believe CEDs has saved the lives of both officers and citizens in Edmonton.

-- retrieved from the Edmonton Police Service website on October 29th, 2008

Also of interest may be the CBC News In Depth: Tasers website which contains links to the case of Robert Dziekanski.

Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died after RCMP officers used a stun gun on him at the Vancouver International Airport on October 14th, 2007.

His death prompted a public inquiry in British Columbia.

Staff Sgt. Peter Ratcliff, president of the Edmonton Police Association, supported the use of Tasers.

"I think the members are trained very well, and that they certainly aren't going to use it unless they are confronted with a situation that requires the use of that force," Ratcliff said.

"Certainly, up to this time, I have no reason to believe the members aren't fully justified in using that."

Based on several investigations he has followed, Ratcliff said he hadn't seen any evidence that convinced him the deaths examined were directly caused by use of a Taser.

Political reaction

On October 30th, 2008, while announcing Alberta's plans to monitor repeat offenders, Solicitor General Fred Lindsay defended law enforcement agencies under his office and their use of the controversial non-lethal weapon ... at length.

"I believe the Taser is a tool that's been used very effectively and in a lot of cases has prevented death.

"These deaths that have occurred, whether it's because of excited delerium or the use of the Taser, I haven't seen a lot evidence yet come forward that confirms at the end of the investigation that it was caused by the voltage put into the person's body by the Taser.

"Until the investigation is completed we're not even sure the Taser was deployed properly where the voltage actually went into the person.

"I want to go on record as saying that of all the thousands of times that a Taser has been used in this province, it has saved thousands of lives. The alternative in a lot of cases is lethal force. It provides safety for the officer, safety for the person who's being apprehended, and also provides another tool for the public.

"What I will say is the Taser is an effective tool and it's an alternate tool to lethal force. In over 2,000 cases where it's been used in this country, it's actually saved people's lives.

"I'm very proud that the guidelines that we have in this province are some of the strictest in our country.

"We're never comfortable when an incident involving the police and the public results in somebody's death. This particular case is under investigation and we'll see what the results of that are.

"So, until we get more information in this particular instance, it's under investigation. We'll review it."

About 25 people have died in Canada after being stunned by Tasers – with three of those deaths occurring in Edmonton, Grimolfson included.

The Canada-based Truth Not Tasers website lists over 380 North American deaths believed to be related to use of the device.

"How many of those deaths have been confirmed to be because of the use of the Taser?" Lindsay asked of reporters.

Premier Ed Stelmach stepped in and pointed out that Lindsay himself was fired upon with a Taser during a demonstration earlier in the year.

"This minister is standing. He got Tasered ... he experienced it and he's alive.

"The incident is being reviewed," Stelmach added, clearly upset. "These are constantly reviewed to ensure there's a balance here. There's also the safety of our police officers in these situations as well, so we're awaiting the full investigation of this particular incident."

The U.S. company that makes them, Taser International, has defended the use of their product. They claim the device has never been directly linked to a death.

While the premier and the solicitor general were maintaining their 'nothing without facts' line, opposition critics were expected to call on the provincial government to ban the use of Tasers by police officers.

Liberal MLA and shadow minister for justice Kent Hehr demanded the province conduct an inquiry and called for the government to effect "more stringent regulation of Taser use."

"Tasers are becoming increasingly used as a police enforcement tool, but there is some growing evidence that they are a highly dangerous tool ... I hope the government is getting to the bottom of it," Hehr said.

The MLA demanded that Alberta's municipal police agencies adhere to the same guidelines recently suggested for the RCMP.

The wheelchair-bound Calgary lawyer was struck down by gunfire in a drive-by shooting at age 21. He was an innocent bystander and found himself quadriplegic as a result.

Chief Boyd's statement

A visibly annoyed Edmonton Police Chief Mike Boyd called media to a news conference convened October 30th, 2008, in the downtown headquarters atrium. His statement was terse and to the point.

"Our service is fully co-operating with ASIRT in this investigation so that they can determine the facts and all of the circumstances surrounding this matter and reach their conclusion, which at the appropriate point I'm certain they'll make clear to the public."

Boyd said the process was similar to a provincial counterpart in Ontario where the Special Investigations Unit looks into deaths involving a police service.

He said they never divulged any type of information in the early stages of an investigation.

"Ontario chiefs and Ontario organisations kind of learned the hard way. They were used to speaking about these to their community.

"The ASIRT unit and the government is actually asking our services to stay out of the public information until after they have completed their investigation and make those conclusions available to the community without any tainting or potential prejudicing of the investigation.

"Thank you very much."

Boyd did not take any questions from reporters and quickly left the area.

On October 28th, 2009, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team ruled the use of the Taser did not cause or contribute to Grimolfson's death and the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing.

The medical examiner said Grimolfson died of "excited delirium due to the consequences of multiple drug toxicity." An autopsy determined the man had consumed a combination of ketamine, ecstasy and cocaine.

A fatality inquiry looking into Grimolfson's death got underway on November 22nd, 2010.

After a break, the inquiry resumed in September 2011. As of April 4th, 2012, the fatality inquiry had yet to issue its report on Grimolfson's death.

All the information presented on this page has been compiled primarily from published media reports and should not be interpreted as having legal bearing or other prejudice against the individuals named on this web site.
The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests.
Mouseover for image credits.

deadmonton 2008 - trevor grimolfson