Regina Leader-Post Staff
Saskatchewan’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) has cleared Melfort RCMP members of criminal wrongdoing after a man died in custody on May 6, 2025.
A report from the civilian-led police oversight body, dated April 27, indicates that on the morning of the day in question, two Mounties were dispatched after being alerted to a possible break-and-enter incident at a residential address in Melfort.
One of the officers determined there had been no break and enter, and that the occupant was responsible for the damage to the property he was renting, according to the report.
“The affected person was observed to have a minor laceration to his hand and told the members that he had consumed cocaine.” the report states, noting he was sweaty, breathing rapidly and “manic.”
The man was taken into custody to be assessed by paramedics, but his behavior was erratic and he would not allow them to examine him, according to the report. He was transported to hospital but wouldn’t let those medical professionals assess him either, the report states.
The officer in attendance decided to take the man back to the police station, according to the report.
However, the man resisted and there was a “brief physical struggle,” the report states, nothing the man was eventually handcuffed and returned to a holding cell at around 10:44 a.m.
“At approximately 1:04 p.m., a civilian guard heard the affected person yell from his cell, asking to return to the doctor.”
According to the report, one of the officers believed the request could wait until the man was sober enough to return to the hospital.
At around 5:09 p.m. the man was found unresponsive in his cell, counties the report, which states: “Based on a review of the cell block video, there was a period of approximately 11 minutes between the time of the affected person’s last observable movements within the cell and the time he was discovered unresponsive and life saving measures were commenced.”
Despite those measures, the man died from what an autopsy determined to be “acute cocaine toxicity, with severe coronary artery atherosclerosis as a contributing cause of his death.”
The report concludes that it “cannot be said that the conduct of police constituted a marked departure from the standard expected of a reasonably prudent police officer, or that if such a departure existed, it occurred when the likelihood of harm to the affected person was objectively foreseeable.”
After considering all of the circumstances, SIRT ruled there are no grounds to believe any officer committed a criminal offence during the course of the incident and no charges are to be laid.
