Woman alleges RCMP kicked ex-husband
Death after Pepper-Spray
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2008 (6162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A 43-year-old man who died in hospital after being pepper-sprayed by police last week died of a brain hemorrhage, RCMP say.
But now, his ex-wife — who alleges that officers repeatedly kicked Nathan Boryskavich in the head while trying to subdue and arrest him — is vowing to see that police face justice if the blows are found to be the cause.
“If (his death) was caused from blows to the head I’m going to try and do something about it,” Lorna Mae Fitzner said in a telephone interview from The Pas Tuesday.
“Sure, they carry a badge, but that’s not what a badge is supposed to let them do… kicking him in the head wasn’t what they should have been doing.”
Sgt. Line Karpish said Tuesday that she could say nothing about the investigation into Boryskavich’s death nor the allegations made by Fitzner as the probe is ongoing.
A backlog of autopsies was behind the delay in releasing the results to the public, Karpish said.
The cause of the hemorrhage that killed Boryskavich is undetermined at this point, Karpish added. The results of further medical tests are still pending.
Police went to Fitzner’s home last Friday morning after she called 911. She said she believed her ex was about to get violent with her.
They said Boryskavich was drunk and they were forced to pepper-spray him after he started fighting with officers.
Fitzner said she was scared of Boryskavich hurting her or their 12-year-old daughter, but disputes he had been drinking.
Fitzner said the girl witnessed the arresting officers repeatedly kick Boryskavich while continuing to blast him with pepper-spray. The girl pleaded with them to stop.
“She stood there watching, screaming at them, ‘You’re hurting him, leave him alone, you’re going to kill him,'” Fitzner said, adding five walls of her small kitchen were covered in pepper-spray residue after police left with Boryskavich in custody.
After he was removed from the home, Boryskavich started having “medical distress,” RCMP said. He died the next day in hospital.
“All I wanted was him out of my house, I didn’t want him dead,” Fitzner said.
Fitzner said she wasn’t informed of his death until a relative, and not RCMP, contacted her long after he died.
“I am totally shocked. I’m disgusted with what happened. It shouldn’t have happened that way,” she said.
“I just keep asking myself, ‘why, why, why?'”
james.turner@freepress.mb.ca