The Dawson Creek RCMP officers involved in arresting a suspect who died in hospital the next day have been cleared of wrongdoing by a B.C. police watchdog. The officers were responding to an altercation “among several individuals” on the morning of June 20, 2024 when they found the suspect near a 7-Eleven, according to a report released Thursday by the Independent Investigations Office. Video captured much of the struggle that ensued when officers tried to arrest the man, which lasted for more than seven minutes. The recordings show the suspect’s “resistance quickly escalated into a violent struggle and assaults on the arresting officers,” which included biting three of them, according to the IIO’s report. While police punched the suspect in the head while trying to place him in handcuffs, IIO chief civilian director Jessica Berglund noted that blunt injury was not determined to be a “significant causal factor” in his death. Instead, an autopsy found the man’s death was “best attributed to methamphetamine and cocaine toxicity in the context of physical exertion, struggle and restraint in a police encounter.” “Given the circumstances faced by the officers, it cannot be said that any of the force applied … by any of the officers throughout this incident was excessive or unjustified,” Berglund wrote in the report. The watchdog found no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the officers committed a crime during the incident. Berglund did note “concerning and problematic conduct” by some of the RCMP officers in relation to the IIO’s investigation, however, including failures to comply with their legal obligation to co-operate with the watchdog. “Examples include failures to file notes and reports, refusals to meet with IIO investigators as directed, delays in obtaining other material evidence from officers and irregularities in the photographic processing of the involved members,” the report adds. “These issues have been addressed with RCMP senior management.”
