All police officers should be issued with a Taser and trained in the use of the stun gun.

That was one of six recommendations handed down Monday by a Williams Lake coroner's jury in the wake of an inquest into the 2006 RCMP shooting death of an American man in the bush near McLeese Lake.

The jury found Donald Lewis might not have died if Constable Cole Brewer had jolted him with a Taser instead of using his handgun when the two struggled during an attempted arrest.

The 43-year-old died of a gunshot wound to the chest August 13, 2006, as Brewer ran to find a radio signal so he could call for help. The American man was on the run from immigration authorities at the time.

The coroner's jury took nearly six hours of deliberations Monday to come back with the decisions.

The jury also called for radio repeaters in all police vehicles that could be called to respond in an area with questionable radio reception.

Lewis' widow, Sara, told reporters her husband was a calm man, and never set out to hurt anyone.

"I never saw him get angry, he was never hostile with anyone, he was always peaceful and sweet with me,'' said Sara Lewis outside the inquest Friday.

"Why did this have to happen? Why did my husband have to be killed? He was such a sweetheart.''

Constable Brewer testified Lewis became angry and cursed at him while trying to resist arrest in the wooded area 600 kilometers north of Vancouver. Brewer said he fired his gun into Lewis's chest as the two men struggled for control of the weapon.

The situation rings a little too close to home for Linda Bush, whose son Ian was shot at the Houston police detachment in 2005 with no witnesses in sight and no surveillance cameras to capture the incident.

Bush admits she is spooked by the recommendation all police officers be issued with a Taser.

She says a stun gun might have saved Lewis's life but she wants to see much better training before the Taser is widely used.

The issue of stun guns has come under heavy scrutiny since the death of a man at Vancouver's International Airport last fall after he was jolted with an RCMP Taser.

A province-wide public inquiry is underway, looking both at the general use of Tasers by police officers and the death of Robert Dziekanski at the airport last October.