Did cop 'let him die'?
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@arcos.org)
Tue, 26 May 1998 09:20:18 -0400
Tuesday, May 26, 1998
Did cop 'let him die'?
Inquest told of choking sounds
By DICK CHAPMAN, TORONTO SUN
"Let him die," one of three Toronto Police officers said of an
unconscious Tony Viveiros, an inquest has heard.
A cop at 14 Division asked two other officers walking through
holding cells if they should check Viveiros, 20, who was making a
loud gurgling sound, a witness testified yesterday.
"Another one said, 'No, f--- him, let him die,' " Wayne Barclay, 38,
told an inquest into the Nov. 11, 1995, death of Viveiros.
"It still bothers me -- the noise and what the police said ... If I
heard
somebody breathing like that I would wake them up and find out what
was wrong," Barclay told the inquest.
Viveiros' sister, Suzie Lashley, 24, dabbed away tears as she and five
jurors watched a police videotape of her brother's arrival, booking
and
incarceration at 14 Division.
"It's my brother. He died at his peak, 20 (years old). My mom, to this
day she can't talk about it," she said outside coroner's court.
A pathologist said Tony Viveiros died from "complications of
cardiac-pulmonary arrest associated with combined
methadone-alcohol intoxication and aspiration of gastric contents."
Blood and urine samples taken from Viveiros before he died also
showed marijuana, a cocaine breakdown product and a Percodan-like
drug, a toxicologist testified.
Pathologist Dr. David Chiasson said cardiac and respiratory arrest
was caused by Viveiros inhaling vomit into his lungs.
Toxicologist Joel Mayer said people have been killed by one-third the
methadone in Viveiros system.
His vital signs were absent when Viveiros was taken by ambulance
from jail just before 11 a.m.
Barclay said the choking, gurgling noise went on for "two to three
hours. I would in no way call what he was doing 'snoring.' "
Anthony Francsics, 24, brought to the jail cells to identify Viveiros
said, "I wasn't sure he was snoring or if he was having a hard time
breathing."