Inquests called into deaths

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This article was published 04/08/2023 (828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has called inquests into the six deaths: a man shot by police, four jail or prison inmates and a psychiatric patient.

David Rainville, 39, was followed by police helicopter after failing to stop at a Winnipeg Police Service check stop in the area of Portage Avenue and Empress Street at about 1:50 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2022.

He drove to his Windsor Park home, and police said he exited the car with a bat and swung at officers before they used a Taser on him. He again approached officers while holding the bat and was shot multiple times by two officers, a news release said.

Rainville was taken to Health Sciences Centre, where he later died.

Clinton McGeough, 39, and David Midouin, 28, were inmates at Stony Mountain Institution when they died. Midouin was found dead in his cell, with drugs and drug paraphernalia, on Aug. 28, 2021. His death was deemed accidental and caused by the toxic mixing of fentanyl and MDMA.

McGeough was found in his cell with drug paraphernalia on July 9, 2021. His death was deemed accidental and caused by fentanyl toxicity.

Dwayne Simard, 37, was found dead on the floor of his cell in Stony Mountain on March 1, 2021, shortly after he arrived at the federal prison. He had told staff he was withdrawing from opiates and was sick, but a medical examination determined he did not require medication. An appointment was made for him to see a nurse practitioner the day he died.

The cause of death was mixed drug toxicity, and the manner of death was undetermined, a news release said.

Darren Wood, 28, was in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre on May 30, 2021, when he told officers he had taken “down” — a mixture of fentanyl and carfentanyl that often includes heroin — and methamphetamine the night before his arrest. He began vomiting on June 1 and was taken to the medical unit the next day. He was found dead on the floor of his room two days later. The cause of death is undetermined.

A 29-year-old involuntary patient of Health Sciences Centre’s psychiatry unit went missing during a smoke break on April 5, 2022. He was found dead by suicide near a park three days later.

All six deaths qualify under the Chief Medical Examiner’s presumption of interest rules, which require a review of any death as a result of use of force by a peace officer acting in the course of duty, an involuntary resident in a facility under The Mental Health Act, or a resident of a detention centre.

An inquest is meant to determine the circumstances around the death and how to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.

— Staff