A man who was seriously injured during an arrest in Vancouver earlier this month has died, B.C.’s police watchdog has confirmed.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC notified the public of the man’s death on Friday, nearly three weeks after the agency says he was arrested and lodged in cells at the Vancouver Police Department jail.
“The man went into medical distress on the morning of May 1, 2023 while in custody of the Vancouver Police Department. He was taken to a hospital for treatment but did not survive,” the IIO said in a statement on May 19.
Speaking to CTV News by phone on Tuesday, an IIO spokesperson said the man died on May 10.
When asked why it took nine days for the public to be notified of his death, the spokesperson admitted it was an error on the agency’s part.
“We missed this one, it was our mistake—there’s no excuse for that,” she told CTV News.
According to the IIO, the man was taken into custody in a residential parking garage in the 1900 block of West 3rd Avenue in Kitsilano on April 30.
No details surrounding the circumstances leading up to his arrest have been provided.
A Vancouver police staff member who was working at the jail at the time of the man’s in-custody death has been suspended with pay, according to the VPD.
“There is now an independent investigation taking place,” VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison wrote in an email to CTV News on Tuesday, referring the ongoing work of the IIO. “We expect that investigation will determine how the prisoner died and if any actions by our staff contributed to that death,” he concluded.
