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Bar security staff need better training: inquest report

By: Jennifer Pawluk

Posted: 12/1/2009 4:59 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

WINNIPEG - Security personnel in drinking establishments should have better training about restraining patrons, a judge recommended in a report, released today, on the inquest into the death of a Winnipeg man in a downtown hotel lobby moments after being arrested by police.

Russell Cook, 55, died at the St. Regis Hotel in October 2006. An autopsy revealed he suffered from heart disease combined with a "hyperexcitable state with agitation." Alcohol and drugs were not involved.

Provincial judge Linda Giesbrecht outlined her findings from the inquest in an 89-page report filed through Manitoba’s Fatality Inquiries Act.

The report indicated that Cook’s pre-existing heart condition caused his death. His agitated state, as well as the position in which we was restrained — "hog-tied" on his stomach with his legs in the air — may also have been contributing factors to his heart failure, but were not the cause, the report said.

Giesbrecht recommended that security personnel working in licensed facilities receive formal training in proper restraint technique and the dangers of using excessive force.

Those who work in such establishments are presently exempt from the training requirements of the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act. This needs to change, Giesbrecht concluded, as do the training and licensing guidelines made by the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission for their security guards.

The tragic incident began when Cook struck a pole, then a pedestrian, with his car in a parking lot near the hotel. He then quickly exited his vehicle and ran inside the hotel.

Staff and patrons of the St. Regis tackled and restrained Cook after he stormed inside the lobby and began causing a disturbance. When police arrived, they were directed to the bar entrance where they found Cook being held face down on the floor. Officers handcuffed him -- only to watch as he suddenly slumped to the floor.

Paramedics performed CPR before Cook was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

-With files from Mike McIntyre

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