Pubdate: Wednesday, October 7, 1998 Source: Toronto Star (Canada) Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Author: John Duncanson, Police Issues Reporter OFFICER'S STATEMENTS CONFLICT, TRIAL TOLD A Toronto drug squad officer involved in a fatal police takedown made conflicting statements about the proper way to arrest a suspect who may be armed, a trial has been told. The officer, Constable Al Flis, testified yesterday that, once a suspect's vehicle has been stopped, officers would normally take cover and call the person out of his car. That statement differed from one Flis made more than a year ago about the proper procedure, court was later told. His was testifying at the manslaughter trial of Constable Rick Shank. His was involved in the March 30, 1997, takedown of drug suspect Hugh Dawson, who was fatally shot after police rushed his car, broke the windows and tried to arrest him inside his Honda Accord. The crown has alleged that Shank, the "road boss" of the drug squad who gave the order to move in on Dawson's car, was criminally negligent in the handling of the arrest. Flis, an east-end undercover officer, is the first of the seven-member drug unit to testify about what happened the night Dawson was killed. But his testimony yesterday that police seek cover during high-risk arrests involving guns came under immediate attack by Crown Attorney Sandy Tse, who said Flis told civilian investigators a different story 16 months ago. Tse was granted the unusual right by Mr. Justice Eugene Ewaschuk of the Ontario court, general division, to cross-examine his own witness about an earlier inconsistent statement he made about police takedowns. The crown showed the officer a statement he gave the provincial special investigations unit in June, 1997, in which he stated that, in most high-risk takedowns in which there might be a gun, police would rush the vehicle and break the windows. Under questioning by Tse, the nine-year veteran insisted that he was mistaken in his comments to the SIU. "No, I was mistaken as to some of the facts I provided in that statement," Flis testified. "It's incorrect that we would rush a vehicle when there is a gun involved," he added. His had testified that Dawson was trying to escape police by reversing out of a trap set up by undercover police officers, leaving them no choice but to surround his car and enter it as it sat at the intersection of Kennedy and Danforth Rds. The police had information that Dawson might have had a gun in the car, the trial was told. The trial continues. - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst