Police watchdog investigating High Prairie man’s death while in custody

A map showing High Prairie. (Google Earth)

The province’s law enforcement watchdog is investigating a man’s death earlier this week while in police custody in High Prairie.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) in a media release Friday said the local man turned himself in on Sunday to the RCMP detachment in the northern Alberta town 285 kilometres northwest of Edmonton because of an outstanding warrant.

Police kept him in custody while he waited to be transferred to a correctional facility, a condition of the warrant.

On Tuesday, after 30 hours of him being in custody, a civilian guard found the man unresponsive on the floor of his cell. Officers and paramedics gave medical care, but the man died at the scene.

Medical examiners performed an autopsy on the man’s body on Thursday.