Vancouver Police Jail Guard Suspended Over May 2023 Death in Custody

A Vancouver police jail guard has been suspended with pay over the death of a man in custody in May 2023.

The man had been arrested on April 30, and was found in medical distress in a cell on May 1. He was transported to hospital and died sometime later.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) has been notified of the death and will conclude an investigation once the Independent Investigations Office IIO concludes its investigation.

The crucial details of the man’s arrest, his time in detention, the nature of his medical distress, and the date and time of his death have not been provided by the VPD. Police have not said what actions led to the suspension of the Vancouver jail guard.

This is another example of police controlling the flow of information when they kill.

Man Killed During Arrest Attempt in Chatham-Kent (July 7, 2021)

A man was killed under circumstances for which few details have yet been released. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) reports that Chatham-Kent OPP (Ontario Provincial Police), in southern Ontario, responded to a call regarding alleged theft of gas from a local station at around 4:30 AM. A responding officer spotted a vehicle and while following it, it lost control and rolled into a ditch.  Some type of undisclosed interaction took place with a man who was in the vehicle and the officer fired his pistol.  The man was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

For undisclosed reasons, neither the Special Investigations Unit nor the OPP have confirmed that the man was shot. An SIU spokesperson has declined to say whether the death would be classified as a police-involved shooting.

Previous cases in which the investigations unit has refused to disclose more specific details have raised troubling questions both about police actions and about the veracity of investigations.

Reports: OPP Shoot and Kill 1-Year-Old Boy in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario (Nov. 26, 2020)

Initial reports suggest that Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers shot and killed a one-year-old boy in the morning of November 26, 2020. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which examines cases of police harm to civilians in Ontario, reports that three OPP officers fired at a pickup truck on Pigeon Lake Road in the City of Kawartha Lakes in an attempt to stop the vehicle. The driver, a 33-year-old man was struck, and the vehicle crashed. The one-year-old boy was found inside the truck. He had suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the SIU, the 33-year-old man, reported as the child’s father, was transported to hospital “in grave condition.”

Police apparently knew an infant could be in the car when they opened fire, because they were responding to an alleged parental abduction. Information has been delayed in reporting of these events. Such is often the case when police kill.

The SIU has assigned four investigators, two forensic investigators, and one collision reconstructionist to examine police actions. Three subject officers have been designated at this point.

No Charges Against Surrey RCMP for Killing Nona McEwan and Randy Crosson

Once again killer cops get off. The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), the agency that examines cases of police harm to civilians in British Columbia, has announced that it will not be recommending charges against the RCMP officers who shot and killed Nona McEwan and Randy Crosson on March 29, 2019 in a home on the 13300 block of 98A Street in Surrey. The decision was made public on April 1, 2020. Four officers were directly involved in the killings. None have been named publicly. The IIO reports that the officers fired over forty rounds, in close quarters. Forty.

Police described the context of the killings as a “hostage taking.” For over a month after the killings, RCMP publicly implied that Randy Crosson had killed Nona McEwan.

When asked directly in 2019 if he could say conclusively that a police bullet did not hit Nona McEwan, the Surrey Now-Leader reported that Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesperson Corporal Frank Jang replied:

“No, I mean that’s all part of the investigation that’s happening now. There will be updates coming forth from the IIO but all those details, the exact mechanism, entries, where the shots came from, that’s all going to be part of the investigation. I can’t comment further because it’s still ongoing.”

Not long afterward the lie was put to the police portrayal when the IIO reported that RCMP had shot and killed both McEwan and Crosson. Clearly, officers at the scene, and IHIT member Jang must have known that police had done the shooting. One might also figure that they knew this as they made statements over a month that posed Crosson as potentially the killer.

The IIO concluded that Crosson “provoked an armed response from police aimed at saving her.” A rather incredible statement given that firing at McEwan, striking, and killing her can in no way credibly be described as a response aimed at “saving her.”

The IIO, which is not a truly independent body and has had former officers among its members as well as relying on police for training, interviewed 38 witness police officers to determine that none of the four officers directly involved committed any criminal offense. Any criminal offense. Not at all surprising given that killer cops are virtually never held anywhere near accountable when they kill in Canada.

License to Kill: Killer Cop Elizabeth Cucheran Let Off by Crown for Hudson Brooks Killing

When it comes to police killings of civilians, the state protects the state. This is not surprising given that police are the force of brute violence (the state’s monopoly on violence) which always accompanies and underpins the state’s legislative (ideological) face. Law and force go hand in hand.

On July 18, 2015, RCMP Constable Elizabeth Cucheran shot 20-year-old Hudson Brooks nine times outside the RCMP detachment in South Surrey, killing him. The Constable fired a dozen times at the youth, who was shirtless and shoeless and in some mental health distress. On September 18, 2019, more than four years later, the British Columbia prosecution service announced that charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon had been stayed against Constable Cucheran.

That the killer cop did not even face charges of murder or manslaughter for shooting an unarmed youth nine times and that it took more than four years to reach this decision shows the special manner with which police who kill are treated by the state in Canada.

Even more, in announcing their the prosecution service chose to emphasize that “the law is clear that even the mistaken belief in the need to use lethal force is a complete defence.” Killer cops always have this excuse, no matter how unjustified, ludicrous, or unsubstantiated, at their ready disposal. It is all they ever need to kill when they want, under whatever conditions they themselves alone decide. Police define the circumstances and they define reasonableness. Even if they are mistaken or lying. Few prosecutors, who depend on police for their cases (and who also uphold the state as do police), will ever challenge them. It is literally a license to kill.

This case earlier showed as well the way in which police lie after they kill someone to suggest that the victim posed a greater threat than they did. To blame the victim. Initial RCMP statements suggested that there had been an exchange of gunfire and an officer was also shot. This gave a public impression that Brooks had been armed and there had been some sort of gunfight between the victim and officers. It was later revealed that Constable Cucheran, in a lethal panic, had shot herself among the 12 shots she fired.

Killer Cop Patrick Ouellet Found Guilty of Dangerous Driving for Killing Five-Year-Old Nicholas Thorne-Belance

Killer cop Patrick Ouellet has been found guilty of dangerous driving in the death of five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Belance on Montreal’s South Shore in 2014. The Quebec provincial police (Sûreté du Québec, SQ) officer was in an unmarked police cruiser, tailing a suspect at more than 100 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, when he struck and killed Nicholas Thorne-Belance in Saint-Hubert.

In a ruling issued Thursday, July 19, 2018, in Longueuil, Quebec court Judge Éric Simard concluded there was nothing to justify the speed at which Ouellet was driving and that there were “inherent” risks in that activity.

Wrote Simard in his decision: “His failure to take steps to avoid such risks constitutes a marked departure from the standard of care that a reasonable person in the same situation would follow” (quoted in Turnbull 2018).

Ouellet reached a speed of 134 km/h on Gaétan-Boucher Boulevard in the period before the accident — and 108 km/h at the moment of impact. At the intersection of Gaétan-Boucher and Davis, Ouellet struck a vehicle carrying two children in the backseat. Nicholas Thorne-Belance was critically injured and died in hospital five days later (Turnbull 2018).

Ouellet had tried to claim in trial that the crash was unavoidable. The Crown argued that the driving was “objectively dangerous.”

Incredibly, the Crown had initially decided to not lay charges. That decision was only reversed in 2015 after Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée ordered an independent review of the case amid growing community outcry. The first inclination of the state is always to protect the state. Community mobilization can affect that.

Sentencing is scheduled for October 22, 2018. Convictions for dangerous driving causing death carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. We will see if a killer cop gets anything near that.

 

Further Reading

Turnbull, Jay. 2018. “Quebec Police Officer Found Guilty of Speeding, Causing Death of 5-Year-Old.” CBC News. July 19. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-officer-guilty-boys-death-1.4751032

ASIRT Confirm Whitecourt, Alberta, Victim Shot and Killed by RCMP (July 3, 2018)

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), the body that examines cases of police harm to civilians in Alberta, have confirmed that a man who died during an encounter with police near Whitecourt, Alberta on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, was in fact shot and killed by RCMP. Initial reports had put some distance between the police firing their weapons and the man’s death, suggesting that he was found dead sometime later and not clearly stating that he died as a direct result of police shooting him. This is yet another example of why we  can never accept police accounts and reports of their violence. All police will lie. Police will lie always.

ASIRT report that RCMP officers had been looking for a vehicle linked to an undisclosed “incident” that allegedly occurred Monday, July 2, in Valhalla, 60 kilometers northwest of Grande Prairie. It is further reported that around noon on July 3, officers spotted a vehicle parked at the Chickadee Creek rest stop on Highway 43, about 20 km northwest of Whitecourt.

A man in the vehicle appeared to be asleep in the driver’s seat, which was reclined. Officers apparently approached the vehicle and discharged their firearms, striking and killing the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Killer Cop Frédéric Fortier Made Critical Mistakes in Killing of Brandon Maurice: Policing Expert

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) officer who killed 17-year-old Brandon Maurice has been identified as Constable Frédéric Fortier during the coroner’s inquest into the 2015 killing. An expert in police “use of force” strategies testified at the inquest that the provincial police officer made a number of critical mistakes. A witness to the killing, Chris Houle, who was in the car with Maurice when the teenager was shot has already testified that the shooting “should have been avoided.”

Constable Frédéric Fortier shot the unarmed Maurice at the end of a police chase through Messines, Québec. He and his partner, Constable Dave Constantin, were cleared of criminal wrong doing after an investigation, that was in no way independent and involved Montreal police in 2016.

The inquest has focused on how Fortier approached the car Maurice was driving at the end of a police pursuit. He approached aggressively with his gun drawn and decided to smash the driver’s-side window to open the car door.

Bruno Poulin, an expert with Quebec’s police academy, so not oppositional to police in any way, testified that the encounter should never have ended with that decision. According to Poulin, the officer narrowed his options by approaching the car overly aggressively and expecting he could physically force the driver from the car. A typical thug approach by police who expect they can impose their authority without question and, if necessary, kill to deal with any mess they create.

In Poulin’s words to the inquest: “He put himself in danger” (quoted in 2018). Poulin said it appears that SQ officers need some retraining. We know that training does nothing to change the power police hold in society and the fact that they can kill with impunity as part of the state’s assertion of its monopoly on violence.

In testimony the previous day Fortier acknowledged that he had gotten himself into trouble but said he would not change his decision to shoot.

Brandon Maurice’s family are considering civil action against the police.

 

Further Reading

Pfeffer, Amanda. 2018. “Expert Witness at Coroner’s Inquest Says Officer Who Shot Teen Made Mistakes.” CBC News. April 13. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/brandon-maurice-death-inquest-1.4617234

No Charges Against RCMP in Killing of Peter DeGroot in 2014

RCMP shot and killed Peter DeGroot in 2014 after tracking him to an isolated cabin in a remote woods near Slocan, British Columbia. It took the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) an outrageously long period of nearly four years to issue their report into the killing, which they finally did on March 29, 2018. Not surprisingly they cleared the officers involved in the killing of DeGroot. Broader questions remain about why they targeted and tracked the man who seemed only to want to be left alone in the woods.

It has been stated by police that the events leading to DeGroot’s killing began when RCMP officers responded to reports of a dispute between two people on October 9, 2014. DeGroot fled into the woods. Police initiated a search by officers, deploying helicopters and dogs. Police found DeGroot alone in a cabin four days later while out in the woods on unrelated business. Initial evidence and a first coroner’s report suggested that DeGroot had been shot in the back. Some have speculated that the drawn out investigation was really about finding time to patch together an alternative conclusion more favorable to police.

The IIO report concludes: “The evidence collected does not provide sufficient grounds to consider any charges against any officer. The evidence does offer support to the conclusion that the officers acted as required by their duties and in accordance with the law.

RCMP deputy commissioner Brenda Butterworth-Carr has lauded the work of new IIO chief civilian director Ronald MacDonald since he took over the post a year ago and says he has given her confidence that trust in the IIO will be renewed by police. This should given anyone concerned about police oversight and independent review great cause for concern.

Family Say Montreal Police Brutally Beat Koray Celik: Refute Police Account of His Death

Koray Kevin Celik (28) died during a police intervention at his family’s Île-Bizard home one year ago. On March 6, 2018, his family organized a vigil outside the Pierrefonds police station to commemorate their loved one and raise some troubling questions about police actions, and accounts of their actions, in Koray Celik’s death. Celik’s parents, Cesur and June, say their son needs to be remembered and what happened to him needs to be discussed publicly. And this discussion needs to happen loudly and often until there is some change (Feith 2018).

Koray Kevin Celik, 28, died during a police intervention at the family’s Île-Bizard home one year ago when the young man was experiencing some distress. Said Cesur Celik: “My son was in crisis and was in a vulnerable state. When the police walked in, he was standing. When they left, they carried his body out. He lost his life in their hands, in front of our eyes.” (quoted in Feith 2018).

Celik acknowledged that the parents called the police seeking help and assistance. The call was made a bit before 2 AM. The parents did not want him their son to hurt himself or to leave the house (Feith 2018). They now express regret at having called police at all.

What happened during the police intervention is under investigation. Few details have been made public. According to Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), the body that examines police interventions connected to deaths or injuries in the province, Montreal police responded to a call regarding a distressed man. The official story says that upon arriving at the house in Île-Bizard, Koray Celik became aggressive and suffered a fatal heart attack while police tried to control him (Feith 2018).

Cesur Celik, who says he witnessed the interaction in his home, rejects the bureau’s public version of events. He says four officers “brutally and viciously beat” his son before he died (2018). The family is considering legal action against the Montreal police force. They have tried to see a police incident report, autopsy, or coroner’s report but their efforts have been thwarted at each turn. The lack of information has added to the family’s grief. Says Cesur Celik: “We’ve been living with this nightmare ever since. One year later and there is still nothing. How can that be?” (quoted Feith 2018).

The Montreal police force (SPVM) has refused to comment on what happened the night Koray Celik died. Since June 2016, the BEI has investigated 72 cases. These include 37 fatal police interventions and five deaths that occurred during police detention (Feith 2018).

At the March 6 vigil, family and friends held signs reading : “Justice for Koray”; “We will not go away”; “The law applies to everyone” (Feith 2018).

 

Further Reading

Feith, Jesse. 2018. “A Year After Fatal Police Intervention in Île-Bizard Questions and Pain Linger.” Montreal Gazette. March 6. http://montrealgazette.com/news/a-year-after-fatal-police-intervention-in-ile-bizard-questions-and-pain-linger