Pubdate: Wed, 15 Mar 2006
Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006, West Partners Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294
Author: Marshall Jones
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

DRUGS, CHOKE-HOLD DEADLY COMBINATION

Dorothy Larsen was desperately looking for answers to a long list of
questions about how her son died.

Her last hope was a coroner's inquest held Monday, but she admits she
may have come away with more questions than answers.

Her son was Evan Walter Larsen, who died Feb. 10, 2004 after being
forcibly confined by three men who caught him shoplifting from Andre's
Audiotronics.

The facts, as they were presented by coroner's counsel Dr. Sydney
Pilley, made two things clear.

Evan Larsen took a combination of methadone--a harm reduction
treatment for heroin addiction--and heroin, the combined effects of
which are lethal in most circumstances. This from a forensic
toxicologist who seemed to say the only reason Larsen had the vitality
to walk through the door in the first place was his tolerance for heroin.

The second fact is he was also choked to death. A forensic pathologist
testified that he died of respiratory distress caused by "a
combination" of drugs and trauma.

Dr. Susan Tebbutt's autopsy showed two areas of bruising deep under
the skin of Larsen's neck, "large areas of bruising. You never see
that unless there was compaction in that area. Those are significant
injuries."

She said the injuries were "deep, not superficial" and on the back of
the esophagus. There was also some evidence that his inability to
breathe was caused by pressure on his chest.

But what still isn't clear is how that damage was caused.

The five jury members called before regional coroner Jeff Dolan's
inquiry only heard from two of five people who witnessed what
happened. The two store employees who had the physical altercation
testified but were granted complete anonymity by Dolan. A third
employee, who witnessed the event, wrote a letter to the coroner.

A customer of the store, who was described by someone identified only
as Store Employee Number Two as the one who first got hold of Larsen
and who played a major role in the confinement, avoided service of a
subpoena, though that wasn't explained in the hearing.

Rumours persist that he was a bouncer at a local nightclub, but that
was neither confirmed nor denied, as one might have expected from an
inquest.

The fifth person, Evan Larsen, is of course dead.

When Larsen walked into the Springfield Road store shortly after 4
p.m. that day, there were four employees inside, though two were in
back offices. One of them was identified as Store Employee Number
Three, who came out of his office only after he heard the commotion.

Store Employee Number Two had the first contact with Larsen. He said
only that Larsen looked "suspicious" but gave no other observations
that would indicate an impending heroin overdose befitting the
toxicology report.

Store Employee Number Two said Larsen carried a backpack and told a
ruse that he was waiting for someone and would be returning a DVD player.

Store Employee Number One said he saw Larsen disappear in one of the
store's sections and he followed.

He noticed a bottle where he expected to find an expensive video
projector on display. He heard a zipper and confronted Larsen. "I said
what are you doing here and where is my projector," he said.

"He opened his bag and started getting nervous and saying 'Oh, it's
here, let's just put it back. You can't tell my mom or she'll freak."

SE1 then yelled to SE2 to call the police. He said Larsen looked like
he was making a break for it and he yelled to SE2 for help. What
happened next, is hard to discern because the stories differ so greatly.

Larsen eventually tried finding an exit and got trapped in a small
warehouse.

SE1 said he and SE2 tackled Larsen. SE1 said they all fell down
together and he wound up with his arm under Larsen's head and his
weight on Larsen's body.

He said as Larsen would struggle he put more weight on his body and
applied more pressure with his arm.

SE1 also said he "tried to grab him by the chin as much as I could"
and "(Larsen) must have yelled out ('I can't breathe') 20 or 30 times"
and he told Larsen "calm down; If you calm down nothing is going to
happen." He yelled to SE2 to tie him up.

A juror sought a little clarification from this story, asking if he
would describe his arm hold as a "headlock."

"No, I had one arm on the ground to support my weight and the other
arm was holding (Evan's) left hand."

The juror asked what was causing the restriction that Larsen was
complaining about.

"Probably my weight on his body," SE1 said. "He was yelling 'I can't
breathe.' I found out after the fact, after doing research on choke
holds, and they showed me what a choke hold was and in a true
choke-hold you can't yell and you can't speak I grabbed his chin and
pulled his head back. I never once grabbed him with two arms."

SE2 said Larsen got away from both employees and was grabbed by the
mystery shopper. He started the 911 call to police. "I was concerned
for safety," he said. "I have been in the retail business a long time
and I have seen quite a bit of shoplifting. When you go one-on-one
with a shoplifter you never know what is going to happen."

"From instructions from those guys (SE1 and the mystery shopper) I put
speaker wire around his legs, a loose fit  he probably kicked it
off."

They had variously described Evan Larsen as having a sort of
super-strength, a skinny 21-year-old who could toss around 100-pound
big screen televisions.

SE2 said Larsen was "a tall guy, not very big but he had a lot of
strength to chuck around two guys. I've never seen anything like that
before."

Yet with just a loop of speaker wire around his legs (no one admitted
to binding his hands) they left the described violent shoplifter there
on the floor for several minutes alone and no one stayed with him.

SE1 says as far as he knew, Larsen was breathing when he left. SE2
said he had the forethought to go and check Larsen's pulse before the
police arrived and he seemed fine.

A juror had questions about that too. If everything was fine--and if
he wasn't gagged--why the need to check his pulse?

"He was exhausted, like he had no energy," SE2 said. "It seemed
bizarre to me. I have been through a number of first aid courses and I
wanted to make sure he was OK. No one went to work that day to harm
someone. It was just a situation we got into."

SE3 was on holiday and out of the country, but his anonymous letter
told yet another story.

He said the employees pinned Larsen with his arm behind his back, said
Larsen was yelling that he couldn't breathe as SE1 "was lying on him
with his hold around the man's neck" and said SE2 was yelling for him
to shut up and stop fighting.

He said SE1 bound Larsen's hands and ankles with speaker wire. He said
Larsen was faced down and breathing heavily.

When Const. Ron Sipos arrived a little late through heavy rush hour
traffic, the employees were all talking at the same time and he wasn't
entirely sure what was going on.

They led him to Larsen who was still tied up in the back. Sipos
checked for a pulse, found none and figured Larsen was dead.

He saw that Larsen was tied up and told the employees to cut him
loose. He called for an ambulance and closed the store for a possible
homicide investigation.

The jury asked Sipos how tight the wires were. He said not too tight
but they did take some time finding something to cut them off.

Jurors asked about the demeanour of staff upon his arrival. Sipos said
it was confusing but never said if he had any indication from them
that Larsen was in severe distress.

Among the very few questions that Dr. Pilley asked SE1 and SE2, was
about store policies on what to do with shoplifters.

Both said to that point they were never trained nor told what to do.
"I assumed my manager or my boss would expect me to do something in
that situation," said SE1.

"There have been things missing before and they'd say we wish we could
have put his name out there but there was no explicit
instructions."

SE2 said shoplifting was never a problem before but said since this
incident, his store has three staff on the floor at all times, video
surveillance has been installed and anything of value is bolted down.

One witness Dr. Pilley didn't call to answer questions about store
policy for dealing with shoplifters was Andre Blanleil, owner and
namesake of the store chain and a Kelowna city councillor.

The jury returned a verdict Tuesday and ruled that Larsen's death was
an accident, although that wasn't unanimous. They also made
recommendations about staff training on how to deal with shoplifters.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake