KINGSTON, Ont. — Ontario's coroner said Monday a man who died just hours after being shot with a Taser gun by police was killed by a drug overdose.

"I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death," Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, said in a release.

The death of Samuel Truscott, 43, "was due solely to a drug overdose," Cairns said.

The Special Investigations Unit had assigned two investigators to look into Truscott's death on Sunday morning, said Rose Bliss, a spokeswoman for the agency that investigates deaths or injuries involving police.

Police were called to a home in this eastern Ontario city to deal with a man who had apparently overdosed on drugs and was threatening to hurt himself.

The man had barricaded himself inside a bedroom and was armed with a knife and a baseball bat, police said.

Pepper spray was used, but when that didn't work police used a Taser gun.

"The Taser worked appropriately," Cairns said following Monday's autopsy in Toronto. "Truscott walked unaided to a police cruiser and was immediately taken to hospital."

Truscott suffered a seizure and died a couple of hours later in Kingston General Hospital.

Last month, police confirmed that a man in Vancouver was the fifth person in Canada to die after receiving a shock from a police Taser gun.

The man was high on cocaine.

Taser guns fire an electrical current through two barbs for about five seconds. The goal is to completely immobilize the victim, shocking their muscles to the point that it causes them to fall down.

Amnesty International has said proof has mounted at an alarming rate over the past year that the weapon should be banned until more tests are done to determine its safety.

The organization says the guns can be deadly when someone is in a weakened state because of heart problems or drug use.

About 50 people have died after being shot with Tasers in North America, most in the U.S. They are not approved for use in Britain and only recently have some Canadian police forces started issuing them to officers.