The Mountie who radioed for paramedics after Robert Dziekanski was Tasered said he initially thought the 40-year-old immigrant was “acting” when he went unconscious following his handcuffing by RCMP members.
RCMP Const. Bill Bentley, testifying Thursday at the Braidwood Inquiry into the death, said the thought that Dziekanski might be acting crossed his mind in the five to 10 seconds before the immigrant began to turn blue.
“When he initially went unconscious, I thought perhaps, at the back of my mind, it might be an act,” said Bentley, under cross-examination by Don Rosenbloom, a lawyer representing the Republic of Poland.
“When his skin started turning blue, I didn’t think it was an act.”
Bentley initially called for a routine ambulance to attend the scene, but about 12 seconds later upgraded the call to a “Code 3” emergency for the ambulance to travel with lights and siren and get to the scene as soon as possible.
Dziekanski died at Vancouver’s airport in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, after a confrontation with Mounties in which he was Tasered multiple times.
Bentley, who concluded his testimony Thursday, was the second of the four RCMP officers to testify.
Const. Kwesi Millington, the officer who fired the Taser at Dziekanski, is expected to testify Monday.
