Canadian police on a killing spree

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/Art ... al/Toronto

Otto Vass died as a result of blows he received in a struggle with four police officers, a forensic pathologist testified yesterday.

The multiple blows caused a globule of fat to dislodge and travel to his lungs, killing him, said David Chiasson, who conducted the autopsy just hours after the 55-year-old died on Aug. 9, 2000.

For the first time since the trial began last month, the jury of six men and six women heard how and why Mr. Vass died and heard of the link between his death and the confrontation with police.

"If I was signing Mr. Vass's death certificate, I would state that he died of a fat embolism due to, or as a result of, blunt-force multiple soft-tissue injuries," Dr. Chiasson told the jury.

The pathologist, who has performed more than 2,000 autopsies, is the last Crown witness at the manslaughter trial of four Toronto police officers. Constables Filippo Bevilacqua, Phillip Duncan, Nam-Nhat Le and Robert Lemaitre, all in their early 30s, have pleaded not guilty.

The officers responded to a call concerning a man causing a disturbance at a convenience store on College Street at Lansdowne Avenue. They encountered Mr. Vass, who had a history of mental illness. He was agitated, witnesses have testified, and resisted police as they tried to subdue him.

In the process, they handcuffed him and forced him onto his stomach. He died a few minutes after the struggle began.

Questioned by Crown prosecutor Desmond McGarry, Dr. Chiasson said being restrained and Mr. Vass's excited state, the result of his mental disorder, may also have contributed to his death.

Dr. Chiasson said it is not unusual for people with mental illness who become very agitated to die suddenly. In Mr. Vass's case, being in handcuffs and on his stomach put more pressure on his lungs and his breathing, he said.

Dr. Chiasson testified that he could not find an anatomical cause of death at the autopsy. Since further tests ruled out drugs as a factor, Dr. Chiasson concluded that Mr. Vass died as a result of several factors, including a mania brought on by mental problems.

The cause of death remained a mystery, Dr. Chiasson said, until he had a hallway conversation with a fellow pathologist who raised the possibility of a fat embolism. Tests on several parts of the body showed fat deposits in Mr. Vass's lungs, heart, brain and liver.

These findings led to new conclusions about the cause of death, Dr. Chiasson explained. However, he said he could not pinpoint where the fatal fat globule originated.

Lawyer Gary Clewley, who is representing Constable Lemaitre, suggested Mr. Vass might have received the injuries before the scuffle with police. Dr. Chiasson said the injuries were recent, but could not say whether they had occurred minutes or hours before death.

Mr. Clewley took exception to Dr. Chiasson's assertion that the blows the officers inflicted caused death. In his cross-examination, he suggested that Mr. Vass's agitated state alone brought about the embolism.

But Dr. Chiasson did not waiver under relentless questioning, telling Mr. Clewley that he would be correct only if Mr. Vass had not been struck and restrained with handcuffs.

Yesterday, jurors saw photographs of injuries to Mr. Vass's torso and extremities, which included extensive bruising to his thigh and marks that Dr. Chiasson said were consistent with being hit with an object similar to a police baton. Witnesses have testified that the officers kicked Mr. Vass and struck him with their batons.

[Aslanna]

Further proof that Canada is evil and should be nuked back to the ice age.