SWIFT CURRENT — Police have been absolved of any wrongdoing following a Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) investigation regarding a death following an interaction with members of the Swift Current RCMP detachment.
The affected individual was determined through an autopsy to have died due to a cardiorespiratory arrest. One of a number of contributing factors was determined to be the stress, both psychological and physiological, brought on by the affected person's detention by police.
It was noted in the report that any arrest, even one conducted without any use of force by police may be stressful to the subject by the very nature of the arrest.
SIRT was notified of the incident at approximately 1:20 p.m. on May 5, 2024.
Earlier that day, at about 11:06 a.m., the Swift Current RCMP received a request from an individual to conduct a wellness check on a family member. At about 11:15 a.m., police found the subject of the report, a 55-year-old woman, to be referred to as the affected person, located at a local hotel. According to the SIRT report, she refused assistance from both police and EMS. The woman was then taken into custody without incident under The Mental Health Services Act, and placed into the waiting ambulance.
While en route to the Cypress Regional Hospital, the affected person went into medical distress and became unresponsive. The affected person was admitted to hospital, but at 12:26 p.m. was pronounced deceased.
As part of the investigation, video footage of the incident was obtained from the in-car digital video system of one of the responding police vehicles.
The report indicated a family member had reported that the affected person was "upset and in pain." A statement provided to the RCMP civilian staff member indicated the affected person may have been in the midst of a breakdown, "with a history of substance abuse and previous talk of self-harm."
When police attended, the subject officer noticed sores on the affected person's feet, and was advised by the individual she had fallen several weeks prior and that her back and ribs hurt. After some discussion, the affected person agreed to go to the hospital and an ambulance was called.
The affected person "spoke of suicide" while EMS were conducting some checks on her, the report says.
Ultimately, the affected person was arrested under The Mental Health Services Act.
She was handcuffed behind her back without any resistance or use of force, and was escorted out of the room to the ambulance parked outside, says the report. As the affected person wasn't able to enter the ambulance on her own, she was placed on a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance.
In the ambulance, the affected person said one of the handcuffs was too tight, and asked for it to be loosened.
The subject officer asked the woman to lean forward so a handcuff could be adjusted, but as the affected person leaned forward, she was observed to go limp and went into medical distress, said the report.
The subject officer removed the handcuffs from the individual to assist in providing medical assistance and EMS began providing care for her. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at 11:58 a.m., and the woman's care was transferred to hospital staff.
Then, at about 12:26 p.m., the affected person was pronounced deceased by a doctor.
The analysis outlined in the SIRT report indicated that while the stress of being arrested, along with numerous chronic and acute medical issues, may have played some role in the timing of the onset of the affected person's medical distress, the arrest was determined to be "based on reasonable grounds, and was reasonably conducted."
In conclusion, the SIRT report said "Following a review of the totality of the evidence in this case, there are no grounds to believe that the subject officer committed any Criminal Code offence during the course of this incident and no charges will be laid."
It continued that there are no grounds to believe an offence was committed by any police officer, so SIRT's involvement in the matter is over.
