Dozens of people arrested for intoxication have died in police holding cells. These are their stories
CBC
Over 60 people in Canada have died in police custody since 2010 after being arrested while intoxicated.
In dozens of those cases, the person in custody wasn't properly monitored or their deteriorating health condition wasn't addressed, a CBC investigation has found.
These deaths typically draw less scrutiny than a police shooting.
When investigations into these in-custody deaths are complete, they're most often deemed deaths from "natural causes."
But behind each death is a person who had family and friends. Often, the person who died was battling addiction.
Drawing on interviews with family and reviews of reports from inquests, media, police and watchdog agencies, CBC's Death in Custody project aimed to put names and faces to these often unreported deaths.
Here are some of their stories.
Saskatoon police thought 19-year-old Brandon Daniels was drunk when they found him sitting outside a downtown theatre in July 2010. In fact, Daniels had taken a fatal dose of Tylenol, after buying two 650-pill bottles of the medication.
His mother, Sherry Bird, says her son began suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness the previous year and forgot his medication at home when he went to Saskatoon.
She believes he must have bought the Tylenol as a substitute for his medication, and when it didn't work, he just kept taking more.
At an inquest into his death, Saskatoon police Sgt. Randy Huisman testified the city's short-term detox unit was full the day Daniels was arrested. Officers didn't call an ambulance or bring Daniels to the hospital, even though that was an option.
Surveillance video played at the inquest showed police put Daniels in a wheelchair because he was unable to walk. He barely moved off the floor after he was placed in a cell, the video shows.
Coroner Alma Wiebe testified that police intervention at any point while Daniels was lying on the jail cell floor could have prevented his death.
"They could have saved his life," Bird said in an interview with CBC News.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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