The rookie RCMP officer who struggled with Grant McLeod on the floor of the Chilkoot Trail Inn shortly before the 39-year-old man's death took the stand at a coroner's inquest today.

Const. Terra Taylor told the six-person coroner's jury she had been out of Depot for just six weeks when she and her partner, Const. Jason MacDonald, were called to the Whitehorse motel on the morning of Aug. 30, 2008 on a complaint of a man staggering around the lobby with a needle in his hand.

They were greeted by a shaken and "cowering” front desk clerk, who pointed to McLeod as the cause of her 911 call.

McLeod, described as a "large, very muscular” man, was standing on the stairs leading to the second floor when Taylor and MacDonald arrived on the scene. He was only wearing one shoe and looked disheveled, the officers noted.

MacDonald, who testified yesterday afternoon, told the jury he asked McLeod to come down and talk, but instead of answering, McLeod headed up the stairs.

The two officers followed, MacDonald in front, and got to the second floor as McLeod reached the emergency exit at the opposite end of the hall.

"He was flailing his head back and forth, rubbing his hands on the sides of his head and grimacing,” MacDonald said.

"He was muttering something about the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost – repeatedly.”

MacDonald said he called out ‘Police!” but again got no response.

"He looked right through us.”

The constables watched as McLeod opened the fire exit, then closed it and turned back toward the police officers.

MacDonald called out again, this time telling McLeod he was arresting him under the Mental Health Act.

Based on McLeod's behaviour, MacDonald said he believed the man was a danger to himself and others and needed to be restrained.

Taylor added they could have arrested him for causing a disturbance under the Criminal Code. The Mental Health Act was most appropriate in the situation, she said, because it would give the man immediate access to psychiatric medical help once he was in police custody.

Once MacDonald had told McLeod he was under arrest, he was their responsibility, she added, so letting him walk away was not an option.

"If he walked out and fell down the fire escape or assaulted someone or walked into traffic, we would be liable,” Taylor said.

Chilkoot Inn resident Darryl Clarkson heard the exchange from his room. He said MacDonald's tone was "authoritative but not aggressive.”

For the first time since the officers' arrival, McLeod responded.

"I don't think so,” Clarkson heard him say. "It was like he was saying, ‘I'm not crazy.'”

Then McLeod started coming back down the hall toward them, the officers told the jury, and they walked forward to meet him. The three came together in front of Clarkson's door.

MacDonald said he grabbed McLeod by both wrists and told Taylor to put the handcuffs on him. But because of where MacDonald's hands were, Taylor couldn't get the cuffs on, she said.

Then McLeod pushed forward and the melee began.

Although both officers were carrying collapsable batons, pepper spray and guns, and MacDonald had a Taser, neither reached for their weapons.

Using anything other than physical force would have endangered her partner or residents of the motel, Taylor said.

Taylor said she got behind McLeod and attempted to put him in a choke hold by standing on her tip toes and reaching her right arm around his neck, while also trying to avoid his teeth. McLeod "lurched forward dragging us along with him,” MacDonald recalled, then fell forward. Both officers went down with him.

Taylor remembered being on McLeod's back, and not knowing where her partner was or if he was hurt. She heard MacDonald use the emergency assistance code – 10-33 – over his police radio and she continued to try to subdue McLeod.

Taylor still had her cuffs in her left hand, she said, and McLeod had grabbed a hold of them and was trying to pull her over his shoulder.

"I knew we were in a bad situation,” she told the jury. "... that if he pulls me under then he has access to everything on my duty belt ... so the fight was on.”

Taylor did not remove her arm from around McLeod's neck, she said, although she did relax the choke hold when she felt the man's resistance wane. At one point, she said she heard a "gurgling noise” come from his mouth and loosened her hold but tightened it again when he kept struggling.

Still on McLeod's back, Taylor's head was wedged in the corner of the door jamb and the door as McLeod slammed against her with his full weight.

"I thought he was going to break my neck,” she said.

When pressed on the choke hold she was using, Taylor said "it is a last resort to be used when there is a threat of death of grievous harm.”

The hold, which is taught to officers in training, is considered "lethal force,” the jury heard.

The whole struggle lasted just a few minutes, according to the evidence. Moments before reinforcements arrived, Clarkson stepped out of his room and asked if the two officers needed help.

"Yes, please,” MacDonald responded.

With some effort, Clarkson managed to get control of McLeod's arms just as four more RCMP came up the stairs.

"He wasn't thrashing around,” Clarkson said of McLeod. "He was just passively resisting.”

Clarkson stepped back and the fresh officers wrestled McLeod's arms from underneath him and cuffed the man.

Taylor said she does not remember when she let go of her choke hold, but did recall hearing another officer telling her "you can get up now.”

The constable said she was in shock as she stepped back from McLeod's body and didn't remember seeing the other officers carry him to the end of the hall.

Taylor choked back tears as she described seeing McLeod laying on his side on the second floor landing.

"When they flipped him over, his stomach was tucked up and he didn't look responsive. He didn't seem to be breathing.”

There was blood on his face and he had a red welt on his forehead, she recalled.

That was the last contact Taylor had with the man. She watched as another officer took his pulse and found none. Several of the officers carried him to the foyer and were preparing to give him mouth-to-mouth when the ambulance arrived.

The paramedics performed CPR and shocked McLeod's heart on the way to the hospital but were never able to resuscitate him.

He was pronounced dead shortly after 8 a.m. at Whitehorse General Hospital.

An autopsy found the cause of death as a cocaine overdose.

A public inquiry is always held as a matter of course when a person dies in police custody. The hearing is scheduled to continue until the end of the week.

It is being held in Courtroom 1 of the Whitehorse courthouse, with coroner Julius Debuschewitz presiding.

Const. Taylor's first name was spelt incorrectly in yesterday's newspaper. The reporter apologizes for the error.