Vancouver police cleared of any offences in death of intoxicated man

The B.C. Independent Investigations Office has cleared Vancouver police of any offences related to the in-custody death of an intoxicated 51-year-old man.

Independent Investigations Office director Richard Rosenthal’s findings from an investigation into the death were released in a report today (December 4).

On the evening of October 7, police responded to a 911 call that a man was causing a disturbance at a park near False Creek.

After locating the man, officers decided to not arrest him or send him to a detox centre because he was banned from the facility.

They instead offered to drive the man home by van but found he was unconscious when they arrived at his residence.

Paramedics were called and the man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The man’s identity has not been publicly released.

A pathologist determined the man died of “acute alcohol toxicity”, according to Rosenthal’s report.

Rosenthal concluded the officers responded appropriately by offering to drive the man home from the park.

The Independent Investigations Office is a civilian-led body that reviews cases of serious injury or death involving police in B.C.

Comments

1 Comments

JA

Dec 5, 2012 at 1:00am

This is good to see that the Police were not blamed for the man's death. It is certainly sad that the man died, but the Police did nothing wrong here. Good on the IIO to do an accurate investigation, and not go out of their way to use the Police as a scape goat.