But there is one thing that is already known. It happened very quickly.
The 18-year-old was driving on Steeles Ave. W. with a friend around 6:30 p.m. on May 5, 2010, when he was pulled over by police, who wanted to check the temporary validation permit on Manon’s four-door Chevy Malibu, said inquest lawyer Frank Giordano.
Thirteen minutes later, after Manon resisted arrest and fled, he slumped to the ground. When paramedics arrived at 6:49, he was dead.
As many as 28 witnesses will testify at the inquest in the upcoming weeks, said Giordano, including the two officers — Const. Michael Adams and Sgt. Stuart Blower — who tried to arrest Manon and chased him a couple of hundred metres before tackling him to the ground.
An SIU investigation completed last January cleared the two officers. According to a news release issued by the SIU at the conclusion of the investigation, Manon went limp after the officers placed their weight on his upper body as he continued to struggle.
The province’s chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Pollanen, concluded that the teenager, who was face down, died of positional asphyxia. The SIU news release said during the struggle “pressure was placed on (Manon’s) chest in a manner that could have caused it to compress and interfere with his breathing, a classic indicia of death caused by positional asphyxia.”
On Monday, most of the inquest was taken up by expert witness Staff Sgt. David Gillis, who trains Toronto police on the use of force.
Gillis testified that officers may use their body weight to bring a subject down to the ground and gain control, but officers should know that if someone is face down with weight on top of him, the “position could impair heart and lung functions, which could lead to positional asphyxia.”
Gillis said police began using a new “grounding technique” in 2010, the year Manon died. Officers put weight on a subject’s head to imbalance him. Officers are taught that, once the person is on the ground, one officer should go to the person’s side to control the situation, while the other fights to get the person’s hands out from beneath and handcuffed.
Gillis testified that in 2010, two new techniques were added in use-of-force training that included placing a restraining knee on the suspect’s belly or back. But he also noted that every arrest situation is fluid, and “we have to react to what a subject is doing.”
The inquest jury, made up of four women and one man, will listen to up to four weeks of testimony.
Manon’s family and friends were present. “We’re just here to learn what happened because we don’t know,” said Diana Manon, who came with her sister Amanda and Manon’s parents, Alejandro and Luisa.
Original Article
Source: Star
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