The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) says that no charges will be laid in connection to a 2019 in-custody death.
The IIU began the investigation after a 56-year-old male was found unresponsive in a Hartford Avenue police station holding room on April 16, 2019, while being processed on two assault charges.
Police say that the male had been arrested at 7:15 pm, taken to the station and placed in the holding room. When officer returned to the holding room at 10:15 pm the male was found unresponsive. He was taken to hospital in critical condition where he was pronounced dead soon afterwards.
As the mans death was in-custody the IIU was mandated to investigate.
IIU investigators reviewed an number of items including:
• WPS briefing and prisoner injury reports
• WPS call history files and officers’ notes, reports and narratives
• prisoner log sheet
• FIS photos
• 911 emergency calls
• in-custody death report
• officer and dispatch communications
• WPS policy on Death or Injury Non-Member/In-Custody Death and Intoxicated Persons
• autopsy, pathology and toxicology reports on the deceased.
Investigators also interviewed six Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service members who responded once the male was found unresponsive.
The IIU says that the civilian director of the agency did not find any evidence to support a conclusion that any of the police officers actions, or inactions, did anything to transgress the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law in the circumstances of this case.
© News4.ca 2020
