Police not at fault in Chemawawin death: IIU
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Officers were not at fault in the death of a man found lying in the street in Chemawawin Cree Nation, the province’s police watchdog says.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba released a report Monday on the man’s death.
RCMP got a call about a man acting erratically shortly before 2:30 p.m. on June 27. One officer told the IIU they found him on Albert Street wearing only underwear and socks, repeating, “I pray to God, I am chosen.”
The officers handcuffed the man but struggled to get him into a police vehicle to drive him to the nursing station. After placing shackles on him, they managed to get him into the back of the vehicle.
He stopped thrashing and kicking during the short ride, and the officers noticed he was “blue in the face and unconscious” when they got to the nursing station, they told the IIU.
The man was pronounced dead there and was later determined to have died from a cocaine overdose. His age was not released.
Video from the officers’ body-worn camera shows the man foaming at the mouth, making nonsensical comments and periodically kicking his feet in the air, the report said. It also shows the officers struggling to get him into the vehicle and thrashing about inside.
The death “is clearly sad and tragic; however, it is not as a result of any actions by the police officers,” IIU acting civilian director Bruce Sychuk said in the report.