Mounties condemned after Taser death video

Updated 23.44 Fri Nov 16 2007

Keywords: Dziekanski, Canada, Taser

A Polish immigrant fresh off his first-ever flight and hoping to start a new life in Canada died after being Tasered by Mounties in Vancouver airport for behaving erratically.

Outrage has been directed at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after a video showing the last moments in the life of Robert Dziekanski was released.

Robert Dziekanski died after being Tasered with 50,000 volts of electricity

It was captured on mobile phone by an onlooker at the airport.

The 40-year-old, from Pieszyce in Poland, had arrived at the airport on his first-ever flight to begin a new life with his mother.

He began acting erratically after not seeing her in the baggage area.

Four police officers arrived at the scene and confronted him and he threw his hands in the air.

The officers fanned around him before he was Tasered with 50,000 volts of electricity.

Dziekanski stumbled and dropped to the floor, screaming in pain and was restrained by the officers.

The Dziekanski video footage ends a bad year for the national police force.

Last December the former chief Mountie quit over the case of a Canadian man who was deported to Syria by US agents, based partly on false RCMP data.

In June 2007, an official probe into allegations of fraud by those running the RCMP's insurance and pension funds said the force's culture was "horribly broken".