MHPS at investigative roadblock over man’s death, as key witnesses are not in the country
By Jeremy Appel on September 8, 2018.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel The Medicine Hat Police Service is facing some unusual challenges investigating the death of a Newfoundland man three days after he was involved in a physical altercation with a British soldier at a local bar. The major roadblock to their investigation is that some of the main people of interest are currently back in the U.K. “We were working on (the case) since the day we received it,” said Sgt. Carissa Witkowski. “We have encountered some issues that we’re not used to encountering, which is that the last people we need to speak to are no longer in Canada.” She said this greatly complicates matters, because these individuals are “not bound by Canadian law and they don’t have potentially legal representation or access to legal advice on Canadian law.” MHPS is still in the process of interviewing the witnesses still in the country. “It becomes an issue when we’re looking to speak to potentially our main suspect, because of the different laws and we’re on different soil,” Witkowski said. Once they’ve gathered all the information they can in Canada, the police will hand it over to the Crown prosecutors, who will then see what they can do. A further roadblock is the medical examiner’s report, which will confirm whether the altercation directly contributed to the victim’s death, but it may not be released until next year. Jeffrey Matthews died in a Calgary hospital from brain trauma on June 24, three days after the altercation. The News was unable to contact Matthews’ mother, Donna Foote Matthews, but she told CBC Newfoundland & Labrador she believes her son was sucker-punched, which cracked his skull and led to internal bleeding. “We have six people that were present at the time of the altercation, with Mr. Matthews being one of them and one of his friends being with him,” Witkowski said, adding that three British soldiers and a Canadian one were also witnesses. There’s video surveillance footage that confirms all witnesses were present, but the actual altercation occurred just outside the scope of the camera. “We’re reliant on all those witnesses to inform us of what happened,” said Witkowski. 15
-14
