Lee Shanks Peninsula News Review (With files courtesy of Victoria News) . osmarie Dunn and Nancy Dawson's sons didn't know ~ each other. They didn’t hang around in the same cir- ». cles or share the same friends, but they had a lot in common nonetheless. Both were of German descent — Anthany Dawson’s grandfather was from Germany, and Dunn’s son, Michael Weissenberger, was born there. Both loved health food and both worked out using the same, highly-specialized Navy Seal training program. Both of them loved life. | Both died on the same day of the month — the 13th — and both died while in the custody of the Victoria City Po- ice. - Anthany Dawson — a talented native artist residing in Kingcome Inlet who had fought and won a battle with drug _and alcohol abuse just three years previously — died Aug. 13, 1999. Dawson was arrested by Victoria Police for acting _ “irrationally in traffic” in the Oak Bay area. At the time, po- lice believed he was either intoxicated or high on drugs. Toxicology reports later proved. he had neither in his blood stream. ' Victoria” Police said the member of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Nation died of a heart attack in an ambulance enroute to the hospital. He. arrived at the hospital with no. blood pressure and no pulse and was later revived. He died seven hours later. The family alleges police used excessive - force in restraining Dawson, and that officers repeatedly punched him in the head and put him ina stranglehold be- “fore loading him, face down, on astretcher. ee : Victoria resident Michael Weissenberger | was picked up : : by police April 13 after he was found unconscious. outside a a -.. cold beer and wine store in downtown Victoria. __ According to a witness at that scene, Weissenberger was “He ee re ceeme under the S Liquor Control ‘and Li to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs and place them i ~ into a holding cell without being charged witha crime. ical distress’. An ambulance arrived and rushed: Weis- senberger to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead: “at 7 pam “Dunn,a Pecident of Céntral Saanich, is distressed that, to - ing the impression, she believes, that he was some sort of drunkard or “good-for nothing.” “That wasn't the case at all. My son was a good person. He had season tickets to the Victoria Symphony, he loved to work out and was health conscious. He kept a journal and read the Bible —- it was lying on his table, open to the 23rd of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.,...),” she said, adding that she doesn't mean to imply he was, the ‘perfect child’, "It’s not that I'm irying to say he wasn't drinking or never drank. What J am saying is that it doesn't matter if he was age ain — but that does not niean he doesn't deserve to re- ceive medical care,” she said, But according to police, Weissenberger was offere dined: ical attention by Provincial Ambulance Service paramedics onthe scene, which he reportedly refused, - Lisa LaPointe, a coroner with the B.C. Regional Coroners Office in Victoria, said a postmortem examination con- ducted April 17 _ confirmed that Weissenberger died ofa “te Or ete Act, which allows police to pick up individuals they. believe - " date, media reports merely say her son was ‘in custody’, giv- _ Psalm (which begins, ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley — drinking — he was human and enjoyed a drink now and il) nae ve faites Hh it, sy | re jl “ ( tr a AD ae : “closed head injury sustained severa ‘hours | prior to“his: demise.’ ” It is still unclear how he sustained those injuries. : LA toxicology report is. expected in the next couple of” “weeks, she told The Review. Weissenberger was.booked into a cell at:1 p.m.. ‘Five: weeks, she to e Review. ~ hours later, a cell guard checking on him found him in ‘med- - “It takes a month from time of death to get the toxicology report, but it depends on how backed-up the lab i is) ‘she - Said. Drunk or. sober, Dunn believes that if her son been more | ‘closely monitored, it might have saved his life. After he was removed from his jail cell, it was evident he had been vio- lently ill for some time, she said. “They (police) told me the cell was covered in vomit; and there was blood, too,” she said “They should have known : by the blood that something was terribly wrong.” The idea of her son dying in pain drives Dunn to distrac- tion, the anguish still so fresh that she has difficulty speak- - ing about it without breaking down. There to hold her hand and offer her comfort is Dawson —- one of the few people who can truly understand and em- - pathize with the torment of cmotions she struggles with. But with Weissenberger's death came new pain for Daw- son. She believes that, had she been able to secure criminal charges against those who came in contact with her son in the hours before his death — or if the civil’suit' she has launched had been concluded — Weissenberger may not have died. “Ffeel really, really guilty. J really believe that ifthe police had been held accountable for my son's death, then Michael might still be alive,” she said, But Crown prosecutors reviewing the Dawson case de- cided just {wo weeks ago not to pres $8 eed se : 31, 2000 antes of of the apes the department can decide saat = vestigation; or if the Police Commissioner’ feels itis in ~ public’s best interest, another police. force can be assigned »- the investigation,” he said. Z police handling the. investigation, not because of lack of = ~ skills, but because the Esquimalt: ‘and: Victoria police de- - partments are “neighbors and likely, good friends”. "MEMBER OF GIANTS - Bob Gillen, regional Crown for Vancouver Island, said he and his Victoria counterparts reviewed the RCMP's investigation. and Crown made their final deci- sion two weeks ago. . “There just wasn't any ba- sis on which we could take a case forward,” Gillen told the News Group from his Nanaimo office. Dawson is hoping to con- vince Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and Attorney General An- drew Petter to re-examine the criminal side of the case following the coroner’s in- quest and her civil suit wrap- ping up. The inquest is scheduled to be heard in Sidney in late June. 2 Dunn, meanwhile, is hop- ing to convince the Attorney General's office to re-assign the investigation into her son’s death to: the RCMP ‘Cuininal investigation division. Currently, the case is being reviewed by the Esquimalt Municipal Police. According to Bill McDonald, an investigator with the B. Cc. Police Commissioner's office, there are two ways an inves- “tigation is launched. Either from within the department — -.which has the option of doing its own investigation, or re- questing another force to proceed — or an investigation can. originate with a public complaint. _ eee “Again, if a complaint comes under the Police “Act one ao - Dunn said she has no confidence i in | Esquimalt municipal’ “I would be more comfortable with the RCMP doing the | investigation, rather than the neighboring police force,” she: said..“I want to know how my son died. | want someone to. explain that to me.” “T want to mourn my: son’s death, but until those ques- tions are answered, I can't,” she said. ; She tells a poignant tale of finding a jar of her son’s hand A cream, open but unused except for a single fi ingerprint evi- _ dent in the soft loam. “T just took my finger and placed it right over top of his fingerprint, trying to feel closer to him,” she said, breaking “nto fr esh sobs of pain as she told of the four-day wait to see -her son's body, and of being denied access to his Victoria ‘apartment. “couldn't see him — and even whéh 1 was fi nally al-: lowed, I couldn't touch him. I had to view him through glass — and ] wasn't allowed in his apartment. I was told it was. because of the investigation, but I needed to see his things. I needed to surround myself with his things,” she said, Dunn isanxious for the inquest into her sons death to get underway and, with the assistance of Dawson, is looking at pursuing a civil case — regardless of what happens with the criminal investigation, ~ “Tjust want answe rs1 just Ww antt0 geton with the ability to mourn my son's sdeath,” she said. smrrurvaniqonsevonme amen ru ey ements erermemnn nT RMON I tH 40M $ DNE y TRAVEL. & CRUISE > Heed SERVICE LT, HQ - 231 0 Beacon Ave. Tel: (250) 656-0905 | Fax: (250) 656. 092 oe £ mail: stravel@ll, ca ~ 4-800-223-4 5266 -