6 years and counting: Alberta family waits for answers as to why their father died in a jail cell
CBC
One Alberta family has been waiting more than six years to find out why their father died in an RCMP jail cell after being picked up for intoxication.
Kevin First Charger, 50, died in the Cardston, Alta., detachment, about 230 kilometres south of Calgary, in 2015.
His family said they've been kept in the dark about what happened after he was picked up and eventually detained by police. It took a CBC News request to get the RCMP's version of the incident.
"I was shocked," said Tracy Crazy Bull, Kevin First Charger's daughter, after looking through the documents obtained by CBC News.
"I wasn't really ready for what I was reading."
The Mounties told CBC News that officers received a call about Kevin First Charger falling into a ditch at approximately 2:30 p.m. in February 2015. He was found unresponsive in the jail cell at 7 a.m. the next morning.
While under police detention, he was medically cleared twice and sent to sleep it off in the detachment, according to RCMP.
He was found dead the next morning.
The details of Kevin First Charger's death may never have come to light if it wasn't for a freedom of information request filed by the NDP on cases of the use of force by the RCMP. Within the documents were a couple of lines describing an in-custody death that occurred in Cardston.
An RCMP spokesperson said an internal review by the Alberta RCMP Major Crimes Unit found officers didn't commit any criminal offences during their handling of First Charger.
An autopsy determined he died of combined drug intoxication.
The family said these statements have just led to more questions.
"Why did they not bring him to the hospital?" Crazy Bull said.
"That's the question that I've been asking myself."
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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