Sask. police watchdog says woman died in custody from unintentional overdose

WATCH: An investigation by Saskatchewan's Serious Incident Response Team found no wrongdoing by police following the in-custody death of a woman in Wilkie.

Saskatchewan’s police watchdog has concluded officers were not responsible for the death of a Wilkie woman who reportedly went into medical distress after a disastrous RCMP wellness check.

In its report released Monday, the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) ruled the woman, 35, died from combined drug toxicity and not from actions by police.

The incident stemmed from a call to the Wilkie RCMP detachment on Dec. 5. Someone asked the officers to perform a wellness check on a 35-year-old woman.

“The caller noted concerns that the affected person may engage in self-harm, was using drugs, and had custody of two children,” SIRT said in the report.

Wilkie is a town located about 160 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

According to SIRT, the responding officer didn’t find the woman at home, where her two children were in the care of a babysitter, who told police the woman had left the home and “seemed off.”

Officers tracked her down by tracing a second 911 call from a Wilkie residence that hung up before it was answered.

Police told SIRT this home was “previously associated with various types of criminal activity,” and they believed they may have been able to find their subject there.

One of the residents let an officer in, SIRT says, where they found the woman at a table containing drugs, paraphernalia, and several knives.

Officers described her as “uncooperative” when confronted by police. SIRT says she was not interested in speaking with police, and when the officer approached, she put her hand on a knife on the table and told him to stay away.

The officer told the woman she was under arrest for drug offences, but when he approached, SIRT says she again reached for the knife, and he backed away. Police said this went on for some time, and the woman “smoked drugs from a pipe” several times.

“At one point during this period, the affected person reached inside the crotch of her pants and produced another bag containing drugs. When the members moved closer in an attempt to stop the affected person from continuing to consume drugs, she grasped the knife. Both members drew their firearms in response,” SIRT said.

According to the report, officers told investigators the guns had no effect on the woman, but she grew fearful when one officer pulled out his Taser, saying she had been tasered before.

During this distraction, police moved in. SIRT says she was “uncooperative” with the arrest, kicking one officer in the chest. Police took her to the ground and cuffed her.

They opted not to pursue any criminal charges but to take her into custody against her will under provisions of the Mental Health Services Act.

The woman was taken to the detachment, but she remained in the vehicle while officers contacted paramedics to assess a cut on her arm that SIRT says occurred “prior to contact with police.”

She was transferred directly from the RCMP cruiser to an ambulance.

According to SIRT, the woman told paramedics she had consumed crack cocaine. Paramedics were about to clear her for release back to police custody when she went into medical distress.

“At this point, still inside the ambulance, the affected person’s pulse could no longer be located and CPR was commenced.”

She was taken to hospital in nearby Unity, where she was pronounced dead.

SIRT was called to the scene just after 1 a.m. on Dec. 6 — a measure required any time someone dies while in police custody.

Investigators recovered several knives and “a quantity of a controlled substance” from the home where officers found the woman. Investigators examined a Taser carried by one of the officers to the wellness check and confirmed it was not used in the encounter.

The most revealing information came from the report of the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.

“Toxicology results confirmed the presence of numerous drugs within the affected person’s body, with cocaine noted to be at a level far exceeding the range typically associated with death,” the SIRT report said.

During the autopsy, the pathologist removed a plastic bag containing a “significant amount of cocaine” from the woman’s body — possibly in an attempt to conceal the drugs from police.

It’s not stated in the report whether the pathologist believes that bag of cocaine ruptured and contributed to the fatal toxicity.

In its conclusion, SIRT ruled there was no indication the woman was at risk of having a serious medical episode.

Investigators concluded the officers showed “significant restraint” during the encounter, and there were no grounds to believe officers committed any criminal offence.