VANCOUVER, B.C. – The lawyer for Robert Dziekanski’s mother accuses one of the officers involved in his death of looking for a fight the night RCMP confronted the Polish man at Vancouver’s airport.
Walter Kosteckyj says Const. Bill Bentley made no effort to gather information before confronting Dziekanski because he was looking for a fight.
Bentley says officers did head straight for Dziekanski without talking to bystanders, and he did ask the other officers if they had a Taser before approaching.
But Bentley says the four officers had no plan to use a Taser the day Dziekanski died in October 2007.
Kosteckyj noted that initial 911 calls about Dziekanski throwing furniture around were exaggerated, and asked Bentley whether approaching a subject without gathering any information was good police work.
Bentley says there wasn’t enough time to properly assess what was happening.
Crown prosecutors announced in December they wouldn’t charge any of the four officers involved, but the inquiry could still make findings of misconduct.
