Coroners jury classifies Tasered man's death as suicide

March 3, 2011
Kent Spencer, The Province

The death of Frank Jonathan Frechette, who died in 2008 after being Tasered by Langley RCMP, has been classified as a suicide by a B.C. Coroners jury in Burnaby.

The five-person jury, which was investigating Frechette’s death, found he had died after a massive blood loss from a (self-inflicted) stab wound.

It made no recommendations for future actions after releasing its findings Thursday.

Earlier, presiding coroner Lisa Graham reminded the jury that Frechette had “directed officers to shoot him” when he was confronted at his Langley home on Sept. 30, 2008.

Frechette, 49, died on Sept. 30, 2008, after a tumultuous morning in which he robbed a bank with a sawed-off shotgun, stabbed himself in the lung causing severe bleeding, and was Tasered twice by Langley RCMP in a confrontation at his Langley home, the inquest has been told.

He was pronounced dead at Langley Memorial Hospital.

Frechette’s sister Natalie Frenette told the inquest Thursday that her brother fell in with the wrong crowd about nine years prior to his death.

“He got in with the wrong group of friends,” Frenette, who lives in Quebec, told the court in a statement.

She said Frechette was asked “to be the brains” of a gang and plan robberies.

“They started doing harder and harder drugs,” she said.

“He went to jail for bank robberies, but he never killed anyone ... My mom never got over his death.”

Forensic pathologist Dr. David Charlesworth has testified that massive blood loss was the cause of death and cocaine was a contributing factor.

Outside court, Jody Pylypow, the estranged mother of Frechette’s two children, said she doesn’t believe it was necessary for police to Taser the naked and bleeding man.

“I understand police’s point of view that safety comes first, but that doesn’t mean you don’t help that person,” she said.

A publication ban has been placed on the name of the plainclothes officer who employed the Taser.

The coroners jury has been asked to classify Frechette’s death from among five categories: accidental, homicide, natural, suicide or undetermined.

It has been told its purpose is not to assign blame to any person or agency.

Taser inquest delayed

November 18, 2009
BC Local News

An inquest into the death of a man Tasered by police has been delayed.

A preliminary hearing began on Monday to determine whether charges of robbery against Trina Toffan, 36, warrant going to trial. Four days have been set aside in Provincial Court in Surrey to hear evidence. Toffan has chosen a Supreme Court judge and jury, if the case goes to trial.

Toffan was charged in connection with an armed robbery of the Royal Bank in Brookswood on Sept. 30, 2008 that led to a bizarre and tragic chain of events.

Less than 10 minutes after the armed robbery, police descended on a Brookswood home. Toffan’s boyfriend, Frank Frachette, 49, who police say robbed the the bank, was seen minutes later jumping from his second-storey window naked and bleeding from stab wounds to his chest. He was then Tasered by police after he made an attempt to get back into the house. He died on the way to hospital. He had no criminal history when the robbery was committed.

Toffan has been free on bail. Evidence given in the preliminary hearing cannot be published until after a trial has concluded.

At the time of Frachette’s death, police indicated there would be a full investigation by Vancouver Police and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team because he was Tasered.

Whenever there is an “in custody death,” a coroner’s inquiry is mandatory, said Jeff Dolan, director for the coroner’s service.

The cause of death wasn’t revealed after Frachette died because an inquest was going to take place by a coroner and jury.

But the inquiry could be a year or more away, depending when, or if, Toffan’s trial goes ahead.

“Due to the fact there is a criminal investigation going on, we can’t compromise that investigation and we would be interviewing the same witnesses,” said Dolan.

He said a coroner’s jury is made up of the same pool of people used in criminal trials.

B.C. police ID tasered man as bank robber

October 02, 2008
Canwest News Service

LANGLEY, B.C. - Police have identified a man who died after jumping from a second-storey window and being Tasered by police and have confirmed he was involved in an earlier bank robbery.

"As the next of kin have been notified, the RCMP can confirm the name of the deceased suspect, who was involved in the armed robbery (on Tuesday) ... is Frank Frachette, aged 49," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said in a statement.

Police say Frachette's home in Langley, about 50 kilometres southeast of Vancouver, was found to contain cash matching the amount taken from a Royal Bank that was robbed at gunpoint earlier in the day.

An autopsy has been performed but the cause of death has not yet been released. Police have noted that Frachette had significant stab wounds to his chest before being subdued by officers with a Taser.

His common-law wife, 35-year-old Trina Toffan, was in custody Thursday, awaiting a court appearance for her alleged involvement in the armed robbery.

RCMP links bank robbery to death of naked man

October 2, 2008
Matthew Claxton, with files from Gerry Bellett and Tim Lai
Vancouver Sun

LANGLEY - RCMP investigators say they have found evidence linking an armed robbery of a bank to a home in a quiet cul-de-sac where a naked, bleeding man crashed through a second-storey window before being Tasered by police.

The 49-year-old man, whose name has not been released, collapsed after being hit by Tasers and died later in hospital.

An autopsy was completed Monday, but the B.C. coroner's service did not release the results. RCMP said the man was known to have been suffering from stab wounds to the chest.

RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said Wednesday that evidence found outside the home links the residence at 19917 47A Ave. to the Tuesday robbery of a Royal Bank branch in Brookswood.

Investigators located an unloaded shotgun, a replica handgun, and a dye-pack from the property. As well, Thiessen said there is videotape evidence from the bank and witness statements that lead investigators to believe the deceased is the person involved with the armed robbery.

Trina Toffan, the man's 35-year-old spouse, has been charged with one count of armed robbery.

During the robbery, a man armed with a handgun fled with an amount of cash. Asked if it was cash from the robbery that police found, Thiessen declined to say. He also couldn't say if a handgun had been found in the home, which was being searched Wednesday by investigators in anti-contamination suits.

Police had the street closed off.

A couple living in the home are believed to have two children aged 12 and five and were known to neighbours as Frank and Tina. They were renting the house and had moved in on Boxing Day.

The bank robber -- who escaped in a van -- was followed by a witness who led police to the home on 47A Avenue. When police arrived, they heard a man and woman yelling and then a male either fell or jumped through a living room window, landing on the ground below.

Thiessen said he was suffering serious cuts and chest wounds but had not been incapacitated by the fall.

Postal worker Bill Kilsby said he saw most of what then unfolded. He told reporters Wednesday he had earlier delivered mail to the home and saw police cars speeding to the cul-de-sac. Kilsby said he was talking to a man in the neighbourhood who said he had heard something, so the pair ran towards 47A Avenue across a small park. When he got there, he saw a naked man covered in blood with police officers -- their weapons drawn -- yelling at him to get down on the ground. "We saw a man walk out naked and bloody," said Kilsby. He said the man's back, shoulders and neck were covered in blood. Kilsby said the man didn't appear violent. "He appeared to be in his own little world," he said.

The man wasn't obeying police instructions and wandered around in front of officers. The police used a dog to try to subdue him but the dog failed to pull him to the ground.

At that point, the man started walking back toward the house and police used Tasers to knock him down.

He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

"Serious incidents such as these are difficult for everyone involved," said Thiessen. "The officers are also affected by these incidents."

The investigation into the man's death is being handled by the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and overseen by Vancouver Police officers.

Meanwhile, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP in Ottawa has dispatched an observer to monitor the investigation to ensure its impartiality.

Commission spokesman Nelson Kalid said his agency had not received a complaint about Langley RCMP's handling of the incident, but the commission is conducting a pilot project in B.C. in which RCMP investigations of its own members are monitored by an outside civilian agency.

"We began the project in E Division in March last year and have assigned observers to a number of Taser incidents including the one involving Robert Dziekanski [at Vancouver International Airport]," said Kalid.

Dziekanski died after being Tasered by RCMP officers Oct. 14, 2007 -- an event that led to a provincial inquiry into Taser use by former B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood. The first phase of the inquiry has finished but a second phase is being delayed until the Crown counsel's office decides whether to press charges against the officers involved.

Kalid said the commission's observer won't have any part in the investigation into the Langley man's death but will assess the impartiality of the police in their handling of it and will produce a report that will be made public.

Armed robbery suspect dies after bizarre Langley incident

October 1, 2008
Catherine Rolfsen, Vancouver Sun

A man died in hospital Tuesday after smashing naked through a second-storey window and being Tasered by Langley RCMP. Police believe the bizarre incident, which occurred at a modest two-storey residence at 19917 47A Avenue in Langley, was linked to an earlier armed robbery.

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said that at about 11 a.m., police received a call of a robbery at the Royal Bank in the 4000 block of 200 Street.

A man in his 40s, armed with a gun and acting violently, knocked over an elderly woman and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police say.

A witness saw the suspect run down an alley, and later followed a van that emerged, thinking the man was in it. While talking to police by phone, the witness followed the van to the residence on 47A Avenue.

When police arrived at the home, they heard yelling between a man and a woman from inside, Thiessen said. "It was believed that the armed robbery suspect was in the home," he said. "At one point, an unknown male fell through, or broke through a living room window from the second floor, landing on the ground below," Thiessen said. "He had severe cuts, lacerations, severe chest wounds." Thiessen did not say what caused the chest wounds. The man was also stark naked, Thiessen said.

One police officer struggled with him, Thiessen said, but the man wouldn't obey police officers. "The suspect then was attempting to flee back into the home, where we knew there was an adult female, we knew there was possibly a weapon associated with the armed robbery," he said. "So with the interest of public safety, and the interest of the potential victim inside the residence and the interest of officer safety, they utilized their conducted energy weapon."

Thiessen said officers were then able to secure the suspect. He was transported to hospital and later pronounced dead. Cause of death is not yet known, and Thiessen said an autopsy is scheduled.

Thiessen said the woman who was in the residence was arrested for further investigation. It's not yet clear what happened inside and why the man came through the window.

The investigation is being handled by the RCMP's major crimes unit with the support of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. Thiessen said police have asked Vancouver city police to oversee the investigation.

The incident happened at the end of a quiet residential street across from a popular bike park. Several blocks were cordoned off by police Tuesday evening.

British Columbia man dies after RCMP attempt to subdue him with taser

October 1, 2008

JANE ARMSTRONG, Globe and Mail
With a report from The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER -- A man has died after Mounties in the Vancouver suburb of Langley used a taser to subdue him after he jumped out of the window of a house.

Police said the man died en route to hospital yesterday afternoon. Officers used the stun gun after they responded to reports that an armed bank robbery suspect was holed up in a Langley house.

RCMP Corporal Peter Thiessen told CTV news that shortly after police arrived at the house, the man smashed through the front window and landed on the ground. He was naked and bleeding from the chest.

Earlier, shouts were heard from the house and police said there were reports that a woman was inside.

Cpl. Thiessen did not release the name of the man nor say if he was the bank robbery suspect.

Police tried to subdue the agitated man, but he tried to run back into the house, Corporal Thiessen said. "At that point, believing that he was a possible armed robbery suspect, the fact that the firearm was unaccounted for and the fact that there was a known female still inside ... officers used their [taser] in an effort to restrain this individual, which they subsequently did," the officer said.

The bank robbery occurred just a few blocks away, earlier in the morning.

It's the second time recently that police in the Vancouver area have used the device to subdue a suspect. Last Monday, Vancouver police used a taser on a 16-year-old mentally ill mother, saying they feared she would harm her baby.

Police have stood by that decision, saying they tried to reason with the girl for three hours and warned her they would use the device. The girl's baby was critically ill since birth and police said they believed she would smother the infant. Social workers called police after she failed to return to her foster home on Sunday. She was at the apartment of her 17-year old boyfriend, the child's father, who is not permitted to see the baby without an adult's supervision.

Last year, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver airport after four Mounties subdued him with a taser. An inquiry has been called into the circumstances of Mr. Dziekanski's death, which sparked outrage and made headlines around the world after a video recorded by a witness at the airport was released. The incident sparked a dozen investigations, including a review by the Ontario Provincial Police, the B.C. Coroner's office, the RCMP Public Complaints Commission and a House of Commons committee.

A report released last month said the RCMP didn't get enough input from medical experts about the impact of stun guns on people.

The head of the Mounties' complaints commission, Paul Kennedy, has called for more restraint by police when they use the weapon.