UK: More deaths attributed to CS spray
01 November 1998
West Yorkshire police discipline and complaints department is to investigate the death of 53-year Eric Smith who died three days after being sprayed with CS gas by police. Smith was arrested by police in Armley, Leeds at the end of October and according to his wife was sprayed three times despite screaming that he couldn't breathe. He fell ill while in custody in Pudsey police station and was seen by a police doctor after complaining about the effects of the gas, but was released after being charged with affray. The next day he went to hospital for treatment and collapsed and died two days later.
The death of 76-year old pensioner Frank Roberts earlier in October has also been attributed to CS gas. He died in hospital ten days after being sprayed by police officers evicting him from his house in Bangor, Gwynned. The case has been referred to the Police Complaints Authority. Two other men have died after being sprayed with CS; Ibrahima Sey died in 1996 at Ilford police station (see Statewatch Vol 6, no 3 & 4, Vol 7, nos 4 & 5, 6) and Peter San Pedro walked into the path of a lorry a few hours after being sprayed by Kent police in 1997.
The Police Federation will also be carrying out an investigation into an incident in which a City of London police officer had a heart attack after a CS spray training session. The officer, who is in his forties, was rushed to hospital after taking part in an exercise in which officers walked through CS-gas filled air. There he had a heart attack and is reported to be in a stable but critical condition. A City of London police spokesperson said that there was no reason to link CS with the heart attack.
Doctors from London's Maudsley hospital have demanded a meeting with the Metropolitan police following an incident in which a mentally disturbed patient was sprayed with CS gas to quell him after he barricaded himself into a room. The incident follows an investigation into the police use of CS gas spray on psychiatric patients at National Health Service (NHS) hospitals that concluded that it "poses a serious health risk to the mentally ill." A spokeswoman for the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust said that the Trust "is opposed to the use of CS spray on people with mental health problems."
SchNews 2.10.98; Guardian 26.10.98; Socialist Worker 14.11.98; Big Issue 30.11.98;