A top Mountie apologized Monday for the death of Robert Dziekanski, who died at Vancouver's airport in October 2007 after he was shocked by an RCMP officer with a Taser.
While Deputy Commissioner Bill Sweeney stopped short of admitting police fault in the death, his words could be seen as a step to reconcile the tragedy with the police response to the incident.
"We are very sorry for Mr. Dziekanski's death, and are committed to learning as much as possible from this terrible event," Sweeney said Monday, during testimony at the Senate security and defence committee in Ottawa.
"We know that we need to work hard each and every day to earn the respect and trust of Canadians and to sustain and improve our national police service."
Dziekanski's death shocked the nation and made international headlines after video footage surfaced of the Polish immigrant wandering through Vancouver's airport.
In a disturbing sequence of events captured by the video, four RCMP officers confronted Dziekanski and stunned him with a Taser within seconds.
The death is currently the subject of a public inquiry in B.C. headed up by commissioner Thomas Braidwood.
However, during the inquiry's proceedings, testimony from the RCMP officers involved in the Tasering incident has sometimes appeared at odds with the video evidence.
For example, one RCMP officer testified he felt threatened by the Polish immigrant because he held an open stapler in an aggressive way, and remained standing after the first shock from a Taser. However, the video clearly shows Dziekanski fall to the ground after the first shock, but the Taser is deployed again.
There were also inconsistencies between the four officers' initial reports on the matter, and what they testified at the inquiry.
While Sweeney said the force trains its officers to defuse situations without the use of force, he said sometimes situations can get out of control.
"But sometimes things happen so quickly that the outcome would not necessarily be the one that we would have desired at the time. It happens in a millisecond," Sweeney said.
"We must spend more time with our training to use de-escalation techniques in a much more effective manner than perhaps we have in the past."
With files from The Canadian Press
