The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is investigating after a man died while in the custody of Calgary police on Sunday.
Police said officers responded around 4:40 p.m. to a residence in the 3900 block of 30 Avenue southeast, in the community of Dover, after members of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) reported safety concerns related to a mental health call.
When police arrived, they located a man in his 40s who was behaving erratically. When officers attempted to take the man into custody, police said he became combative and assaulted an officer.
Police said tasers were deployed, but the victim continued to resist arrest and went into medical distress.
The man was transported to hospital, where he later died.
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No officers were injured, but police said Alberta’s director of Law Enforcement was notified and ASIRT has been asked to investigate.
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Calgary police said a man died in hospital after being tasered by officers who were responding to a mental health call in the 3900 block of 30 Avenue southeast on Sunday.
Global News
Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Mount Royal University, said even though the officers knew they were responding to a mental health call, there’s a lot of evidence that needs to be collected before ASIRT can determine if the man’s death could have been prevented.
“They’ll do it by eyewitness testimony, they will wait for toxicology, they want to get a little bit of background about the history of mental health concerns — did he have a history of, you know, some kind of physical disability, bad heart? That kind of stuff,” said King. “Then you just kind of piece together exactly what happened.”
“The officers are responding probably in an emergency situation and then they get out of their vehicle and then it all happens probably within 30 seconds,” added King.
“The officer could have had a PhD in mental health treatment and within 30 seconds, it just happens, right? We always have to remember, the officers have to protect themselves, protect others who are there. And also try and get the scene calm as quickly as they can. So this wasn’t a time for kind of negotiation in an extended kind of situation.”
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