A coroner’s inquest will be held into the suicide of a former Burnaby RCMP media relations officer who went on to become the spokesperson for E Division at the time Robert Dziekanski was fatally Tasered at Vancouver International airport.
Pierre Lemaitre was 55 years old and a sergeant with the Mounties when he died by suicide at his home in Abbotsford in July 2013.
At the time, Lemaitre was posted to the RCMP's traffic services division, but he had been the officer in charge of RCMP media relations when Dziekanski was shot with a Taser in October 2007.
Lemaitre's initial accounts described the Polish man as being distraught and behaving irrationally, adding that RCMP officers used two bursts of the Taser to immobilize him.
Video later surfaced that appeared to contradict those accounts and an inquiry into Dziekanski's death was also told that Lemaitre had watched portions of the video before issuing the first news release about the incident.
Lemaitre had been the officer in charge of media relations for Burnaby RCMP until August 2006
He had come to Burnaby in March 2004 after working in the same role for Coquitlam RCMP.
The coroner’s inquest into Lemaitre's death is scheduled to begin Nov. 19 in Burnaby.
The Coroners Act permits the chief coroner to hold an inquest if he or she has reason to believe the public has an interest in being informed of the circumstances around the death, or the death resulted from a dangerous practice or circumstance.
With files from the Canadian Press.
