The RCMP officer who gave the order to jolt Robert Dziekanski with a Taser gun had let his first-aid certification lapse for more than five years when he encountered the Polish immigrant, the inquiry into Dziekanski's death heard Tuesday.
The second day of testimony from the senior officer involved in the October 2007 incident has seen RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Robinson defend his efforts to help Dziekanski in the moments after the Polish immigrant was jolted by a Taser.
Robinson acknowledged his first aid certification had expired in March 2002, more than five years before the incident at Vancouver International Airport.
First aid certification is supposed to be kept current every three years.
Robinson's first-aid knowledge has come under the microscope because previous witnesses have testified he initially refused to remove Dziekanski's handcuffs for first aid responders.
"I was reluctant to remove them," Robinson said.
But he removed the cuffs after being asked a second time by paramedics.
"I remember giving them the warning they have to potentially get out of the way if he comes to swinging," Robinson said.
The officer also denied he ever choked Dziekanski, or place his knee on his neck while arresting him.
Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, representing Dziekanski's mother, suggested a widely seen video of the incident showed Robinson perched on Dziekanski's neck.
"It was not on his neck," he said. "I was never on his neck."
Robinson is the last, and most senior, of the four RCMP officers who confronted Dziekanski early that morning.
The public now knows Dziekanski was hit with a Taser multiple times shortly after being met by the officers.
Dziekanski, a landed immigrant from Poland, had spent hours in the customs and immigration hall at the airport, before police were called to respond to reports of a man throwing luggage around in the arrivals area.
The inquiry continues.
