|
Guard describes teen's fall into elevator
shaft
Last updated Jan 19 2005 08:25 AM MST
CBC News
A courthouse guard broke down Tuesday as he
recounted the horror of watching Kyle Young fall five storeys to his
death.
"I could see his face. I just watched him fall
all the way down. Just as I lost sight of him I heard a big bang,"
Const. Ali Fayad told a fatality inquiry.
Fayad and Chris Chambers had been escorting
16-year-old Young to another floor at the Edmonton courthouse when
the youth fell down an elevator shaft on Jan. 22, 2004.
Fayad testified that Chambers had been holding
Young, who was handcuffed and in leg shackles, against the elevator
door.
Fayad said when Young – who was known to spit
on guards and had been threatening them – began squirming, the guard
placed his arm across the slight teen's back.
"I pushed him into the door. The elevator door
made a loud pop and swung wide open," the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Fayad
said, adding he almost fell into the shaft, but managed to grab the
wall next to him.
After a moment of shock, Fayad said he pulled
an emergency alarm, phoned for help and then walked back to the dark
shaft.
"I yelled 'Kyle, Kyle' about 10 times, but
there was no response," he testified. "I kept looking at the shaft
and the door and said, 'How can this happen?'"
A lawyer for the courthouse guards earlier told
the inquiry that tests were done on the door after Young fell. Peter
Royal said it was determined that if a certain pin was missing from
the door, it could leave its tracks if 50 pounds of pressure were
applied to it.
Lorena Young, Kyle's mother, said the testimony
of Fayad and Chambers leads her to believe force was used.
"I'm not saying how much [force], I don't know
how hard he leaned on him. Maybe there was fault with the elevator
door, but put the two together, I just don't understand why Const.
Fayad had to step in in the first place," she said.
Alberta Justice determined that the guards
pushed Young against the door with enough force to knock it off its
tracks, but also said the guards used a "modest" amount of restraint
and followed normal procedures.
Alberta Justice also decided that there was
insufficient evidence to charge anyone in connection with the death,
based on an investigation done by Edmonton Police homicide
detectives.
Fayad also agreed with earlier testimony from
former guard John Tomaino, who said a photographer appeared at the
scene before police arrived and began shooting.
Fayad said he had seen that person in the
courthouse before, but hasn't seen him since. No pictures have ever
surfaced.
|
