Hamilton Police Shoot and Kill 30-Year-Old Woman (Oct. 20, 2018)

Police in Hamilton, Ontario shot and killed a 30-year-old woman early in the morning of Saturday, October 20, 2018.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) the agency that examines cases of police harm to civilians in Ontario, reports that police received a 911 call at around 1 AM Saturday morning. According to the SIU, officers entered a residence above a shop and one officer tased the women before a second officer shot and killed her. The woman was pronounced dead at 2:04 AM.

Six SIU investigators and three forensics investigators have been assigned to this killing. One officer is the subject of the SIU investigation and there are also two witness officers.

The SIU is still working on an investigation into the police killing of Quinn MacDougall, a nineteen-year-old who was shot by Hamilton police in April. The victim had reportedly called police over fears regarding a social media threat. The investigation into MacDougall’s killing ahs already exceeded the 120 timeline for SIU investigations recommended by a recent review of the service.

Cops Investigating Cops: Calgary Police Services Investigate Death of 22-Year-Old Kugluktuk Man in Custody of Nunavut RCMP (Sept. 19, 2018)

The Calgary Police Services are investigating the death of a 22-year-old Kugluktuk resident while in custody of the Nunavut RCMP on September 19, 2018. The victim was reportedly medivacked from Kugluktuk to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, where he died. Nunavut RCMP have not provided any details about the circumstances of the death, or why the victim was medivacked, but have stated that the incident triggered the force to “engage the RCMP’s External Investigations or Review Policy.”

Inspector Keith Cain, of the Calgary Police Services, reports that four detectives and two members of the Calgary Police Services crime scenes unit were in Kugluktuk the last week of September to do an investigation. They had attended the autopsy in Edmonton.

The investigating officers will compile a report of the incident and give it to a Crown prosecutor, who will decide whether to press charges. It is expected the police “investigation” will take a month and the Crown will review the report over the course of an additional month.  Nunavut’s deputy coroner, Khen Sagadraca, reports that the office is conducting its own “preliminary investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the death.

This is a blatant case of police investigating police and we can expect nothing in the way of justice to come from it. Incredibly, and speaking to the reliability of police in such cases, the Nunavut RCMP did not issue a news release about the in-custody death when it happened. They have since refused to answer questions about this failure to report. Perhaps they needed more time to concoct a story or reconstruct a crime scene.

Woman Tased by Victoria Police, Dies (Sept. 29, 2018)

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO), the agency that examines cases of police harm to civilians in British Columbia, is investigating the death of a woman who was tased by an officer or officers of the Victoria Police Department  on September 29, 2018. The IIO reports that at 2:17 AM officers attended the area of Songhees in Victoria in response to reports of a disturbance. At about 2:28 AM police located a female near the water and deployed a conducted energy weapon (CEW). Emergency Health Services (EHS) attended and the woman was transported to hospital with serious injuries. She later died there.

Police claim they were trying to prevent self harm. Tasing is itself, of course, a form of harm. No other details have been released publicly. The claims presented by police via the IIO have not been independently confirmed publicly.