Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jun 2008
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2008 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Tu Thanh Ha
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

MONTREALER ACQUITTED IN SHOOTING DEATH OF POLICEMAN

Awakened before dawn by police officers who battered down the door to 
his home, Basil Parasiris said he acted in self-defence when he shot 
at a stranger at his bedroom door.

A jury agreed yesterday, acquitting the Montreal-area businessman of 
first-degree murder in the shooting death of Constable Daniel 
Tessier, a father of two.

The verdict was the latest slap in this case for the Laval police. 
The trial had revealed that the force's search warrant relied on 
dubious evidence and didn't allow a night-time raid; that officers 
didn't properly check whether Mr. Parasiris owned guns; and that they 
fired by mistake into a child's bedroom.

The jurors agreed with Mr. Parasiris's defence that he thought he was 
the victim of a home invasion.

Jurors weren't even told that the judge, Mr. Justice Guy Cournoyer of 
Quebec Superior Court, had invalidated the search warrant the 
officers were using.

Mr. Parasiris was targeted in a police probe into cocaine 
trafficking. But Judge Cournoyer ruled that the police failed to 
prove he had drugs in his home and weren't justified in using force to enter.

The court was told that police didn't know Mr. Parasiris had a 
registered gun. The officers didn't check his name in the firearms 
registry, only the address. However, he had failed to report that he had moved.

About 5 a.m. on March 2, 2007, nine Laval officers used a battering 
ram to enter Mr. Parasiris's home in the Montreal suburb of Brossard.

Constable Serge Lauzon, the first officer to enter the house, headed 
for the wrong bedroom, so it was Constable Tessier who went to the 
master bedroom.

Awakened by the noise, Mr. Parasiris grabbed a Ruger .357 magnum 
revolver, one of three guns he kept in his closet.

He testified that he fired after seeing "this big man all dressed in 
black and a white face" at the door.

Three shots hit Constable Tessier, killing him. The last shot struck 
another constable in the arm.

Jurors heard that Constable Lauzon and Constable Francois Leblanc 
mistakenly thought the shots had come from a door in front of them, 
so they fired 10 shots at the bedroom of Mr. Parasiris's 15-year-old son.

While backing up, Constable Lauzon bumped into Detective-Sergeant 
Nathalie Allard as she fired at the master bedroom.

One of her shots struck Constable Tessier as he lay dying; another 
wounded Mr. Parasiris' wife, Penny Gounis, in an arm.

There were also questions about Constable Tessier's appearance. He 
was dressed in black and the word "police" on his bulletproof vest 
was obscured by a flap, the jury was told.

The Crown said the slain officer wore a baseball cap with a police 
logo on it. But the defence noted that the ambulance drivers didn't 
see that cap. Instead, a black tuque was found at the scene.
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