A Sundre RCMP officer and a Sundre hospital peace officer have been cleared of any wrong doing in the September 2022 death of a 72-year-old male, an ASIRT investigation has concluded.
On Sept. 23, 2022, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was directed to investigate the circumstances of the man's death.
According to the ASIRT report released on Nov. 14, at the time of the man's death at the Myron Thompson Health Centre in Sundre, the officers used force trying to enforce an apprehension order on him issued by a doctor under the Mental Health Act when he became non-cooperative.
While the use of force employed by the officers was considered a contributing factor in the man's death, their actions were determined to have been lawful.
“It is my opinion that they were lawfully placed and acting properly in the execution of their duties,” concludes the ASIRT report signed by Michael Ewenson, executive director.
“There is no evidence to support any inference that they engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to a criminal offence. The force used was necessary, reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances, notwithstanding the tragic outcome,” Ewenson he wrote.
The investigation involved conducting interviews with all relevant civilian witnesses including the physician on staff and nurses at the hospital as well as the officers involved with a review of CCTV from the hospital with the medical examiner’s findings also considered.
The male had been brought into the Sundre hospital by his wife and a friend for a mental health assessment. While he was not known to have any previous history involving mental health episodes, he on that day had “experienced a sudden onset of delusional imagery,” reads a part of the 10-page report.
He reportedly believed that RCMP were at his house to kill him and his wife, and was additionally said to be “having an imaginary conversation with a friend that was not physically present.”
The male eventually began to display aggressive behaviour, the report says, prompting the hospital's peace officer to request assistance with the man, who despite his age, presented a physically imposing presence with a height of 1.9 metres (six-feet, three-inches) and a weight of approximately 95 kilograms (210 pounds).
After the man’s wife left the hospital to tend to her own needs, he came to believe in her absence that she had been abducted and as a result left the hospital by physically forcing his way past the peace officer who then called to advise RCMP that she required assistance with a patient that was on a Mental Health Act Form 1 apprehension, the report says.
The peace officer attempted over a period of about 15-20 minutes to persuade the male to return to the hospital but was not successful. Further attempts to convince him to go back into the hospital of his own volition continued for an additional 12-14 minutes after the RCMP officer arrived, the report says.
Efforts to communicate failed as the male made his way to the northwest corner of the parking lot, which is at the edge of the hospital property.
At that time, the report says the officers proceeded to physically restrain him in an effort that resulted in the male ending up on the pavement where he reportedly continued to resist and began kicking before making an attempt to pull at the RCMP officer’s duty belt that holds a number of use-of-force weapons.
According to the report, the RCMP member then “delivered two to three knee strikes” to the man’s torso to gain compliance and the peace officer took control of his legs to prevent him from kicking as they attempted to restrain him. The RCMP officer ended up deploying his oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray and emptied the contents of the canister onto the male’s face.
Once the officers regained control, the report says they rolled the man onto his stomach and the peace officer applied handcuffs. During the struggle, the male also sustained a fracture to his right elbow.
The physician who had been assessing the male was joined by other medical staff and paramedics who quickly came on scene and determined he had vomited and had no pulse. Aggressive resuscitation efforts were performed but after approximately 45 minutes, the male was declared deceased.
The medical examiner later concluded the man died as a result of multiple factors.
“At the time of his altercation with law enforcement, he was suffering from renal failure caused by a likely infection and a myocardial infarction, all conditions which alone can be fatal,” reads part of the autopsy report included in ASIRT’s findings.
“In addition, police restraint played a role: the forceful prone (face-down) restraint in which the deceased was placed prevents a person from breathing adequately and in this case was the final event that contributed to the deceased's demise. Furthermore, it is uncertain what degree of pain was felt by the deceased, however given the already weakened state of his heart, it is likely that the use of the OC spray and the dislocation of his elbow might have played a role in his death.”
The autopsy report summarized that “although the final act that led to the deceased’s death was the result of a human action, the deceased had life-threatening illnesses that made him a danger to himself and others, thereby making intervention necessary.
“Although no comment can be made in regard to the force used, there is no preponderance of evidence to support one manner of death over another. The manner of death is therefore classified as undetermined.”
Per the Criminal Code, the officers were deemed to have acted lawfully in fulfilling their duties which in this case involved attempting to enforce the Form 1 Mental Health Act apprehension ordered by the doctors.
ASIRT does not have a mandate to determine whether the death could have been prevented through changes in policy, training, resourcing, as such matters are examined through another external process.
“A fatality inquiry may very well be ordered, but that is for the appropriate agency to decide,” stated Ewenson.