The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is investigating a man’s death while being arrested by RCMP officers in Chilliwack. According to the IIO, based on information provided by the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP, police responded to a report of a fight near March Street and Patten Avenue. They report that a man was arrested by police, then went into medical distress. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No other details are available at the time.
Amaranth RCMP shot and killed a 27-year-old man in Sandy Bay First Nation on the evening of April 20, 2024. It is reported that RCMP were responding to a call by Manitoba First Nation Police Service regarding a disturbance involving a weapon at a residence in Sandy Bay First Nation around 5 PM. Police claim the man had fled by the time officers arrived, but RCMP and Manitoba First Nation Police tracked him to an open, outdoor area. A Mountie shot and killed the man.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) will be investigating.
Eeyou Eenou Police Force (EEPF, Cree Nation) struck and killed a pedestrian with a patrol car in Mistissini, in Northern Quebec, on April 19, 2024. Quebec’s Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) is investigating. They report that a police officer from the Eeyou Eenou Police Force was traveling in his patrol car, followed by two police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in their patrol vehicle. The three officers were reportedly responding to a call regarding a person traveling by foot on the highway. The pedestrian was then hit by the EEPF police officer’s patrol car. The victim suffered serious injuries and was transported to a clinic where he was later pronounced dead.
Five BEI investigators have been tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. The BEI is not an independent investigations unit and relies on other police forces for their investigations. In this case, the Service de police de la Ville du Québec (Quebec City police) will be involved in the investigation.
The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) is investigating the death of a man during an intervention involving the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) on April 4, 2024. They report that around 1:31 PM, a call was made to the Sûreté du Québec regarding a person allegedly wanted by police. Around 7:10 PM, police reportedly attempted to arrest the person who was inside a tent, using pepper spray to force him out of the tent. At some point they heard a gunshot coming from the tent and withdrew. Officers from the Sûreté du Québec tactical intervention group arrived on the scene around 4:08 AM on April 5 and confirmed the person’s death. The BEI has assigned four investigators to examine the circumstances surrounding the police intervention and death.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is investigating an in-custody death in Red Deer on March 31, 2024. It is reported that Red Deer RCMP were sent to a residence on 50 Avenue regarding a male acting erratically and running onto the roadway at 10:56 PM on March 25. RCMP say a man was arrested and transported to the Red Deer detachment.
While detained in cells, police say the man appeared to be in medical distress and EMS was called. He became unresponsive and life-saving measures and CPR were initiated. He was then transported to the Red Deer Regional Hospital where he was being monitored in the ICU.
On March 31, at 2:00 PM, Red Deer RCMP were notified that the man was declared dead. Police say he had “succumbed to his injuries in the ICU,” but no explanation has been given for what those injuries or how he received them.
The Nova Scotia Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) is investigating a man’s death during an arrest on March 2, 2024. They report that RCMP officers responded to an unknown emergency 911 call at a residence in Bramber, West Hants, at around 4 AM and arrested a man for allegedly obstructing a police officer. During the arrest, the man went into medical distress and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Quebec’s police oversight agency, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), is investigating after two men in their twenties were killed in what is reported as a police pursuit in the Rosemont neighborhood of Montreal on March 28, 2024.
According to the BEI, a Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM) police officer was responding to a 911 call reporting gunshots and dangerous driving shortly after 5:30 AM. While driving with lights flashing the officer reportedly spotted a vehicle that was driving dangerously and appeared to match the description of the vehicle in the 911 call. He pursued it. The BEI say that about one minute later, the driver of that vehicle crashed into a tree. One person was declared dead at the scene and the other died later in hospital.
The BEI has assigned five investigators to examine the case. The BEI is not an independent oversight agency and relies on other police forces for their investigations. In this case they will be assisted by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the provincial police. Showing the conflict of interest this involves, the SQ is simultaneously carrying out the criminal investigation into the alleged gunshots and dangerous driving that occurred before the police intervention.
A man died in Wood Buffalo RCMP custody on March 22, 2024, after an intoxication arrest at a homeless shelter the prior evening. It is reported that on March 21, Wood Buffalo RCMP responded to a call regarding an intoxicated man at the Centre of Hope homeless shelter at 7:50 PM. The man was reportedly co-operative with police during the arrest and was detained at the Wood Buffalo RCMP detachment cell block at approximately 8:20 PM.
Police say the man was able to walk on his own and was verbally responsive with the police officers and the cell guard. They claim he showed no visible injury or illness. Police report the man went to sleep in the cell block at about 11:50 PM.
On March 22, at 5:28 AM, the cell guards determined that the man was unresponsive, and a call was placed to Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The man was pronounced dead by EMS at 6:11 AM.
Intoxication arrests are often deadly. The practice should be discontinued. People in need of help or support should receive appropriate health care, not police. Such resources should be provided for unhoused people seeking shelter and support, but instead municipalities and provinces fund police.
Wood Buffalo is the largest municipality by area in North America. It is the site of the Athabasca tar sands.
Darryl Sabourin, a 45-year-old Dene father of four from Hay River, NWT was killed after what is described as “an altercation” with security officers at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton on March 6, 2024. It is reported that Mr. Sabourin checked himself into the hospital for detox treatment for alcohol addiction on March 4.
His sister-in-law Shauna Gordon claims that he was restrained by “peace officers” and believes that they used excessive force on him. Gordon says that staff told her Mr. Sabourin had been restrained by peace officers after growing agitated in the facility’s detox area early that morning. She reports that he was restrained and eventually became unresponsive. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. Gordon told media that when she saw Sabourin’s body, his face was covered in bruises, and a tube filled with blood was in his throat.
Because this death involved private security, Edmonton Police Service (EPS) are the ones investigating. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASRIT), which covers formal police forces had not been informed of the case prior to media inquiries.
Mr. Sabourin was father to four sons, aged 11 to 19. Shauna Gordon is caring for them and tells media they are stunned by his loss. In her words, “They are extremely angry. They’re unable to breathe, just crying and crying in my house. It’s really devastating.”
The family has set up a fundraiser to cover funeral costs and arrangements.
Police in Calgary shot and killed a man, identified by neighbors as Patrick Robert Kimmel (45), on March 15, 2024, after what police say was “a 30-hour armed standoff.” It is reported that members of both the Calgary tactical unit and RCMP emergency response team fired their weapons. Witnesses reported “the sound of explosions and a volley of gunfire” after which Mr. Kimmel was dead. In audio from a video recorded by a neighbor and subsequently released to media, a tactical team member can be heard to say, “we’re going to have to amp things up a little bit.”
Police had been stationed outside a home in the 300 block of Penswood Way SE, in the Penbrooke Meadows neighborhood of southeast Calgary since 3:30 PM in the afternoon of March 14. Police say they were at the residence as part of an ongoing firearms investigation and people not involved in the investigation were able to leave the home before the man barricaded himself inside.
Police claim the man inside started shooting shortly after their arrival. Some nearby homes were evacuated, and a shelter-in-place order was called for the neighborhood. Some residents were not allowed to return to their homes for several hours and the Calgary Emergency Management Agency opened an information center at the Village Square Leisure Centre. Memorial Drive, a busy Calgary thoroughfare, was shut down between 52nd Street SE and 68th Street SE.
At least one police sniper with a scoped rifle entered a neighboring home. Another neighbor has reported that a CPS sniper “also set up a perch on his property.”
Neighbors who witnessed the police siege said they saw police flooding the basement of the residence through a window. They also said that police tried to smoke the victim out. Several windows in the residence were “blown out.” Neighbors reported that police set off several “flash bombs.”
Police claim the situation “escalated” at around 8:30 PM and members of the Calgary tactical unit and RCMP emergency response team fired their weapons killing the man. It has not been explained who or what “escalated” the situation, a key question given police suggestions about amping things up. No one in the community was hurt as a result of alleged gunfire from the man who was killed.
Police say there were intermittent negotiations with the man over the 30-hour period. It has not been reported what “escalated” the situation or why police decided to open fire and kill the man. Calgary Police Service (CPS) Chief Mark Neufeld suggested the man’s alleged “history of weapons offences” influence police actions during the incident.
Many questions remain of course. People are starting to ask what police meant by “amping things up” during the siege. There are also questions about what role police presumptions about the victim played in their response.
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