IIO In Prince George
Prince George, B.C. – The independent Investigations Office has deployed investigators to Prince George to probe an incident in which a man under arrest later died.
The RCMP say that last evening, around 10:30. the Prince George RCMP received a report of a man believed to be “casing” vehicles in the 1000 block of Central Street West in Prince George.
A police officer responded to the complaint and located the suspect who attempted to flee on a bicycle.
According to police, the officer and suspect got involved in a struggle. The officer called for assistance and several other Mounties arrived on scene. The officers assisted in the arrest of the suspect, and during the course of their interaction with him, pepper spray was used prior to placing the suspect in a police car.
The suspect is said to have developed trouble breathing and immediate medical assistance was requested.
An ambulance arrived on scene, and the man was taken out of the police car at which time he collapsed.
The 35 year old was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after midnight.
The Independent Investigations Office will now investigate to see if there is a connection between the man’s death and the actions of police.
Comments
I hope other so called would become criminals learn from this.. There’s been a rise in crime the last two weeks and I’m sure the RCMP are stretched to the limits
Sure glad we have an independent investigative office for situations like this. A lot of shady looking people could be seen to be avoiding police for any number of reasons… to end up dead in custody should never be the end result.
The man faced no trial for the acquisition against him and it appears no crime had been committed other than refusing to be arrested. He could have simply been on drugs, had a mental issue, depressed, or paranoid for something unrelated or previous traumatic events involving authorities.
I see two parts to the investigation. One is the scenario around the action of the now dead civilian and the arresting officers. The other should be around the way in which the use of pepper spray was used that resulted in death, so that best practices can be used in the future to avoid this kind of tragedy from ever happening again.
you make allot of assumptions.
Can you name one assumption. Or are you the one making assumptions about Assumptions?
In fact the story above makes assumptions. Why the parenthesis around ‘casing’ and not around ‘believed to be’?
No resistance, no force required, end of story.
No I don’t believe it’s the end of story when a man dies if we live in a country that believes in the rule of law.
Well my truck was broken into last week by a guy like this. If this was him…karma!
Seriously? Your truck (a possession) is worth a man’s life? Thieves may be the scum of the earth but to wish death upon them is rather harsh.
News reports state that back up was called n was present when peppered sprayed.. Really??? Three or four cops couldn’t handle a guy who had no weapons???
The question is why would they keep him in the back seat of the cop car if he is having trouble breathing? Probably had him face down too, as I seen them do that to the guy that broke into my car many years ago. Face down into the seat with the cop on top, little roughing up, because we all know the courts will have him walking free by morning…. standard practice I ‘assume’.
I would think if a guy has trouble breathing then you get him some water and fresh air so he can breath. He would be in cuffs after all with how many officers surrounding him.
We will have to wait for the reports to know for sure. Just lots of unanswered questions at this point. The rule of law is important for everyone.
That is just it, you don’t know if he has a weapon or not. Pepper spray is typically a non-lethal weapon of choice to temporarily disable a person. I have seen many a druggy walk right on through being pepper sprayed and keep coming at you. They are on such an induced high at the time they don’t even notice the pain of the spray.
I am sure after peppers prayed and hand cuffed they would know about any weapons, so give the man access to fresh air until the criticality of the situation subsides?
While these situations are very troubling, luckily they are few and far between compared to the shoot first, ask later police south of the border. Hopefully improper force was not employed in this case; the RCMP generally do an excellent job screening candidates for the ex-school bully power tripping types.
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