The use of force was not a factor when a man died in police custody during an arrest along Port Coquitlam’s Mary Hill Bypass last December.
According to the newly released findings of the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), an autopsy found the man, identified only as AP (Affected Person), had an underlying heart condition and recently consumed a quantify of illicit substances.
“Those factors would undoubtedly have been amplified by the stress and exertion of the incident, but the officers cannot be blamed for that,” said Ronald MacDonald, IIO’s chief civilian director.
“[AP] presented as someone who was creating serious danger and needed quickly to be brought under control. That is all the officers did, and they did it with a necessary and proportional degree of force.”
According to the IIO findings, members of the Coquitlam RCMP Traffic Unit were working speed enforcement along the Mary Hill Bypass when a man ran out of a wooded area onto the highway with what appeared to be blood on his face and clothes.
It later turned out that AP had fled a home a few hundred metres away when police had arrived to execute a search warrant. Witnesses said he ran onto the road and was attempting to open the doors of moving vehicles and was almost struck.
One of the officers chasing AP told investigators that he tried to haul him down with an arm bar but AP was able to get away, jumping over a concrete divider into eastbound traffic.
Eventually, AP jumped into a stopped SUV, where officers caught up with him and pulled him from the vehicle by his neck and shirt.
However, that was still not enough to end the situation.
AP pushed the officer away and was eventually stopped by a civilian who grabbed him and held him against the hood of the vehicle.
“Can you take him to the ground?” the officer can be heard saying to the witness according to footage of the incident. The Mountie later told another civilian to “grab his legs, grab his legs.”
Officers said AP appeared to be “almost fearful” and in video footage from the dash camera of the police vehicles can be heard saying “please help me.”
“We’re trying to help you bud,” the civilian witness can be heard saying. “You just got to relax, and you’ll be able to breath.”
However, when other officers arrived on scene, AP became unresponsive and paramedics were quickly called.
An autopsy report found that AP’s inability to breath was attributed to his health conditions and had nothing to do with the police officer’s use of force, according to the IIO. The report also found he had a large quantity of cocaine and methadone in his system and suffered from high blood pressure and an enlarged heart.
“It is important to note that the cause of death was not linked to any improper force used on AP that may have created a physical impediment to his ability to breath,” the document said.
“The two subject officers were justified in using the force necessary to place AP in handcuffs and to hold him still to enable a search for weapons to be carried out. There is no evidence that anything more than this necessary and reasonable degree of force was applied.”
