Robert Wayne Bagnell, 44

June 23, 2004 - Died after Vancouver police tried to arrest him upon receiving a call about a man rampaging in a common washroom of the Continental Hotel on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, where Bagnell lived. He had locked himself in the bathroom and was smashing things before police arrived. Police stayed outside the washroom, waiting for him to calm down, but a fire began on the ground floor. As smoke began filling the building, a TASER-equipped emergency response team was called in, and Bagnell was hit by two separate Tasers.

At inquest, it was revealed that Bagnell's heart was enlarged to one-and-a-half times normal size, an indication of a chronic cocaine use. He also had undergone open-heart surgery to repair a heart valve.

A toxicologist testified Bagnell's blood sample results were 4.2 milligrams of cocaine per litre of blood. The minimum lethal level is one mg per litre (if cocaine is injected or smoked as crack cocaine), but 10 times that if snorted.

The probable cause of death was a "restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication," Dr. Laurel Gray, a pathologist, testified at the inquest.

A five-man jury concluded Robert Wayne Bagnell died of restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis.

Source:
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

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Fortressman's notes:

http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/

Here's a bit if interesting information: the above anti-TASER website was created in memory of Robert Bagnell by his relatives. This helps us to better understand the motive behind the typical anti-TASER mindset. These people are obviously pained at losing a loved one, and are simply directing their anger at what they mistakenly perceive as the cause of an unjust death.
(See "Taser - a Cycle of Fear" section in right column.)

There are certain stages of grief.
1) Shock – Immediately following the death of a loved one it is difficult to accept the loss. A feeling of unreality occurs. During those first days and through any religious rituals or memorials there is a feeling of being-out-of-touch.

2) Emotional Release – the awareness of just how dreadful the loss is accompanied by intense pangs of grief. In this stage a grieving individuals sleeps badly and weeps uncontrollably

3) Panic - For some time a grieving person can feel in the grip of mental instability. They can find themselves wandering around aimlessly, forgetting things, and not being able to finish what they started. Physical symptoms also can appear -- tightness in the throat, heaviness in the chest, an empty feeling in the stomach, tiredness and fatigue, headaches, migraine headaches, gastric and bowel upsets.

4) Guilt – At this stage an individual can begin to feel guilty about failures to do enough for the deceased, guilt over what happened or what didn’t happen.

5) Hostility – Some individuals feel anger at what “caused” the loss of the loved one.

As with most assigned "TASER-related" deaths, to point the finger at TASER in this case simply defies any and all logical comprehension. The TASER in no way influenced Mr. Bagwell to ingest & abuse cocaine, nor caused his heart to become enlarged to 1 1/2 times its normal size. This man's death was a consequence of his own choices.
http://www.fortresstactical.com/
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