Probe into Saskatoon jail death to take months: police

Saskatoon police say it will take several months to determine why a young man, 19, died in police custody last weekend.

Police said Thursday that autopsy results on the body of Brandon Travis Daniels were inconclusive and that it may take up to four months to receive a toxicology report which could provide insight into the man’s sudden death.

Daniels was arrested just after 6:30 p.m. CST on July 2 when police responded to a complaint of  possible drunkenness. Daniels, of Leask, Sask., was put into the police lockup and was found unresponsive 12 hours later. The coroner's office pronounced him dead at the scene.

The Saskatoon police department's major crime unit is investigating under the oversight of the RCMP.

Daniels' mother, Sherry Bird of the Mistawasis First Nation, has said investigators should be probing whether police confused her son's medical condition with public intoxication. Bird said her son suffered from an undiagnosed illness that sometimes left him glassy-eyed and confused.