Woman (55) in Crisis Dies in Swift Current RCMP Custody (May 5, 2024)

The Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) is investigating the death of a 55-year-old woman in Swift Current RCMP custody on May 5, 2024. They report that on May 5, at approximately 11:06 AM, Swift Current RCMP received a request to conduct a wellness check on a family member. At approximately 11:15 AM, a 55-year-old woman was located at a local hotel and taken into custody under the Mental Health Services Act. While on the way to Cypress Regional Hospital, she went into medical distress and became unresponsive. She was admitted to hospital where she was pronounced dead at 12:26 PM. SIRT’S Civilian Executive Director and four SIRT investigators are investigating the death.

Cops are not health care. So-called wellness checks by police are not about wellness and are often deadly for people in crisis.

Woman Dies in RCMP Custody in Wilkie, Saskatchewan (Dec. 5, 2023)

Saskatchewan’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) is investigating a woman’s death after she was taken into RCMP custody in Wilkie, Saskatchewan, a town located 165 kilometers west of Saskatoon, on December 5, 2023. It is reported that RCMP officers were asked to conduct a wellness check on an adult woman at a home there at approximately 7:45 PM. Officers responded to the residence but did not find the woman. At 9:30 PM, police reportedly received a report of a 911 hang-up at a different residence in Wilkie. When officers arrived, they allegedly found a woman who needed medical attention. She was taken into custody under the province’s Mental Health Act and is reported to have gone into medical distress after she was transferred to an ambulance. The victim was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police are not health care and are not the appropriate response for someone in medical distress or for a wellness check.

Don Bennett Believed Killed in Fire During RCMP “Wellness Check” (Nov. 10, 2023)

Family members have identified Don Bennett (66) as the man believed to have died in a fire inside a barn during an RCMP “wellness check” at a blueberry farm in Langley on November 10, 2023. It is reported that there was an hours-long standoff beginning when RCMP were called for a wellness check on an “individual who was distraught and made concerning comments.” RCMP arrived at a farm on the 23000-block of 0 Avenue, on the Canada-U.S. border, at around 4 PM. Police claim they heard gunshots and, in response, called the force’s integrated emergency response team. Police claim that at around 10:40 PM a fire broke out that consumed the barn, leaving the person inside likely dead.

Bennett’s daughter, Nicky McIntosh, has come forward to question the RCMP handling of the encounter and to ask whether RCMP did enough to defuse the situation. McIntosh told media that an armed response to a mental health crisis was not justified. She also wished the RCMP had involved Bennett’s family early on. In her words: “I don’t know if there was a mental health worker or a social worker or a support worker in attendance with the officers who came to do the initial wellness check. But the family wasn’t involved from the beginning. And by the time we did find out about it, I think it had already escalated to a point where I don’t know if there was any way to go back.”

McIntosh said she was only notified of the standoff a bit before RCMP said the barn burned down. She is asking why the family was not contacted earlier: “He has so many friends and family members that could have easily been contacted, even just to touch base with him. And then who was on the scene with the police officers? Because when somebody is in mental distress, having a badge and a gun isn’t necessarily the answer.”

Incredibly, police called in dog handlers to remove dogs that were on scene and allegedly impairing police movements. The dog handlers claim a shot was fired near them. Yet, while it has not been determined that counselors were dispatched for Mr. Bennett, it has been reported that a counselor was called to the scene—for the dog handlers. Sarah Jones, executive director of the Aldergrove-based Langley Animal Protection Society told media, “She was called that evening and had a session with each of them in the night to make sure that they were okay. They’re getting the mental health and emotional support they need, and they’re doing remarkably well, but I think this [is] something that [can] show up later.”

Bennett had reportedly rented space on the property to park his RV for around a decade. He had been living in the RV inside the barn.

The owners of the blueberry farm have also come forward to say how the police operation traumatized them, leaving them in shock even two days later. The Brar family says that police tactical officers arrived at their door and told them to hide in their farmhouse with the lights off as dozens of officers “swarmed” the property.

According to Sandeep Brar, “The SWAT team…they were running around all the house. We were totally shocked. There’s lots of RCMP police cars, fire trucks, and then ambulances … I was totally shocked and I keep crying—what’s going on here? We never had any kind of a problem.”

Brar said her nine-year-old daughter and two elderly parents were in the house at the time, while she and her husband got stopped at a police barricade while trying to return home after running some errands elsewhere. Brar told media, “My daughter was crying and my parents didn’t know what to do.” Ranvir Brar, a 14-year-old daughter, told media of the fear inside the house. In her words, “My little sister was in the house and my grandparents … [It] was pretty scary for them.”

McIntosh described her father as easygoing and kind man, who was close to her two daughters. In her words, “Everyone he met—strangers on the ferry, on the trail, Campbell Valley Park where he rode his horses—he would make friends everywhere.”

She said that anyone close to Bennett knew he struggled with mental health issues, and that he was in a crisis on that day. Recognizing that many people have died during so-called wellness checks in Canada, McIntosh said, “If they don’t change the way they deal with it, it won’t be the last time either.”

Thirty-Six-Year-Old Man Dies During Police “Wellness Check” in Sarnia (Sept. 12, 2022)

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating the death of a 36-year-old man in Sarnia on September 12, 2022. They report that Sarnia Police Service officers were called to conduct a wellness check of a man at a residence on London Road in Sarnia at around 11:30 AM. The man went into medical distress at some point after an officer arrived. Emergency Medical Services arrived, and the man was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The SIU have assigned five investigators and one forensic investigator to examine the death.

Police are not an appropriate response for health crises. Medical services should be sent to assist people and should not lose valuable time responding after police.

Constable Jeremy Son Identified as Cop Who Killed Chantel Moore

The Edmundston, New Brunswick, police officer who shot and killed Chantel Moore in 2020 has been identified as Constable Jeremy Son in documents obtained by CBC News. Chantel Moore, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman from Tlaoquiaht First Nation, was shot multiple times and killed in the early morning of June 4 during a police “wellness check.” Moore suffered three shots to the back and two to the chest, and her leg was broken. Constable Son was removed from active duty for three weeks before he was put back on the job in an administrative role.

An investigation into the killing has been carried out by Quebec’s police oversight agency, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), but the results have not been released publicly. The BEI is not an independent body and relies on police forces to carry out their investigations.

Chantel Moore’s family has called for a public inquiry into systemic racism in policing in Canada. Despite calls from numerous Indigenous leaders, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs refused to hold a public inquiry into systemic racism in the province’s justice system.

Man Dies After “Wellness Check” in Surrey, BC (May 12/13, 2021)

A man was found dead in the early morning of May 13, following an RCMP “wellness check” a bit before midnight the night before in Surrey, British Columbia. The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) reports that Surrey RCMP say officers went to a “wellness check” in the 17000-block of 21st Avenue on May 12 at around 11:45 PM. According to the IIO, officers “reportedly spoke to a man at the home before departing.” The man’s death was reported by a family member shortly after 8 AM on May 13. At this point the IIO say that the victim was found dead “from an injury that appears to have been self-inflicted.”

Police are not about wellness. There have been numerous cases in Canada in which people have died from self-inflicted injuries directly following a police action against them.

Sixty-Year-Old Woman Falls to Death During “Wellness Check” (May 18, 2021)

A 60-year-old woman fell to her death in North York during a “wellness check” by Toronto police on May 18, 2021. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) reports that Toronto police attended an apartment building at 5785 Yonge Street, near Finch Avenue, to check on the well-being of a woman. They reportedly went to a unit on the eighth floor and briefly spoke with a woman before she went to her bedroom to retrieve a document. At some point the officers were alerted that someone had fallen from the building and it was determined that the person who fell was the woman the officers were speaking with. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The SIU has assigned three investigators and one forensic investigator to examine the death. None of the police claims have been confirmed publicly.

Police are not about wellness. Several people have been killed by police during wellness checks. A perhaps surprisingly large number of people have fallen to their deaths during police actions.