RCMP bear no blame after drunk man in cell broke ankle: report

The police oversight agency says RCMP did nothing wrong in the case of an intoxicated man who fell and broke his ankle while alone in the Selkirk detachment cells.

Mounties were called about a man parked in the middle of the road and dancing in traffic, near highways 101 and 15, on Oct. 7, 2025, the Independent Investigation Unit said on Thursday.

Officers located the man, who was highly intoxicated, and found cocaine on him while arresting him, the IIU said.

While driving to the Selkirk detachment, the man stopped talking and instead began moaning and groaning, so the Mounties took him to the Selkirk hospital, where doctors cleared him to sleep it off at the detachment, the IIU said.

The next morning, as officers were releasing the man, he complained to the Mounties that he had broken his ankle after he fell off the bench in the cell overnight.

Video surveillance showed him walking around the cell, unsteady, before he fell awkwardly onto the floor, catching his right leg under his body. Once he pulled his leg from under his body, his ankle was visibly injured.

The next morning, officers on surveillance video could be seen helping him up and putting him in a wheelchair.

No officer was seen using force on the man, who told the IIU he stumbled and broke his ankle and that no officer used inappropriate force. He required surgery for his broken ankle.

Acting agency director Bruce Sychuk said the man “unfortunately injured himself while intoxicated.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca