SIRT report clears RCMP officers, says overdose killed man in Pelican Narrows jail cell
Man, 34, died in RCMP custody in 2023
A man who died in a Pelican Narrows jail cell took a lethal amount of cocaine while in custody, according to a report from the province's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), which cleared RCMP of any wrongdoing in the 2023 death.
SIRT investigators found no evidence two RCMP officers were responsible for the death, according to the five-page SIRT report released Tuesday morning.
"There are no grounds to believe any police officer committed any Criminal Code offence during the course of this incident and no charges will be laid," the report stated.
Instead, the SIRT report blamed a drug overdose for the man's death and examined how he hid a bag of drugs from the officers who searched him before putting him in a cell. The two RCMP officers involved did not fully co-operate, according to the report.
"As is their right, both members declined to participate in an interview with SIRT investigators, or to provide access to their notes related to the incident," the report stated.
On July 15, 2023, Pelican Narrows RCMP were trying to arrest a 34-year-old man with an outstanding arrest warrant for break and enter and weapons offences. The man tried to run, but a Mountie stopped him with a conducted energy weapon.
At the RCMP detachment, two officers each searched one side of the arrested man's body and put him in a cell around 3:15 a.m. CST. About 11 hours later, a judge ordered the man to remain in custody until his next court appearance on July 17.
On July 16 at about 2:35 p.m. CST, officers noticed the man in medical distress. He stopped breathing by the time he got to hospital and was declared dead.
The report tracks the man's movements based on surveillance video inside the RCMP station, including instances of him handling a small bag and its contents while in the cell.
An autopsy found methamphetamine and a lethal amount of cocaine in his system and concluded he died of drug toxicity, the report stated.
The RCMP officers who searched the man followed procedure, the report stated.
"Although a more extensive search, such as a strip search, may have located any drugs hidden on or in the affected person's body, courts in Canada have been clear that due to their invasive nature, such searches require situation-specific grounds, and cannot be conducted as a matter of routine policy," the report stated.
"Neither the nature of the affected person's charges nor the circumstances of his arrest were sufficient to constitute such grounds."
Pelican Narrows is located about 510 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.