Local cops cleared of wrongdoing for in-custody death in August 2023
By Medicine Hat News on October 10, 2024.
@MedicineHatNews A provincial police watchdog has cleared local police of wrongdoing after a man they arrested last year for wielding a long knife and shouting on a balcony died in hospital a short time later. Alberta Serious incident Response Team officials released their findings into the Aug. 6, 2023 incident stating the man was high on methamphetamine at the time several types of less-lethal weapons were used to subdue him, including a taser shot from a fire engine’s ladder. That may have led to a severe type of heart attack, which proved fatal, but the use of force was justified, according to the report. “In the circumstances … there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct constituted a criminal offence,” it read. The event itself was only brought to public attention several days later when ASIRT announced it was ordered to look into the in-custody death. According to ASIRT, Medicine Hat police officers were called to an apartment complex where the individual, identified only as “affected person” or AP, was seen on a balcony yelling “at an imaginary person,” and holding a long-bladed weapon, described as a machete. Negotiators attempted to make contact to no avail, and later pepper-spray balls and hard plastic pellets were fired, then tear gas, and finally two tactical team officers were raised in a fire engine’s ladder lift to deploy energy conductive weapons. Officers then pinned the suspect with a police shied, while hand strikes and more rounds from the Arwyn (pellet gun) were used to obtain the weapon. A police medic examined the individual and he was sent to hospital where he entered cardiac arrest and died. The event was captured by a video surveillance drone. ASIRT’s report concludes that “the subject officers’ response thereafter in using their respective uses of force described previously to get control of AP was proportionate to the threat of death or grievous bodily harm that he posed to them.” 13-12
