She needed medical help. Instead she died in police custody. 10 years later, her family wants accountability
CBC
It was just after 10 p.m. on a Wednesday when the 911 call came in to RCMP in Gods Lake Narrows, Man.
A young woman had taken pills, the caller said. She was drinking, possibly suicidal and needed to be checked on.
That began a series of events that ended with the death of Tracy Okemow, 31. By then, she'd spent nine hours in an RCMP jail cell in the town about 550 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, slowly overdosing on diabetes medication.
"They brushed her off and let her be sick in the cell all night long ... being tormented," said Ralph Okemow, Tracy's brother.
Tracy Okemow's death in 2012 is one of 61 CBC has documented across the country involving people who died in police custody after being arrested while believed to be intoxicated.
More than a dozen of those stories are similar to Okemow's, in that the people who died were in medical distress and in need of health care — but housed in a jail cell instead.
Unlike some others, Okemow's death wasn't investigated by a police watchdog or through a judicial death review. Such reviews look into the circumstances of deaths in custody and make recommendations to prevent similar incidents.
Her death was reviewed by the Brandon Police Service, which detailed her final hours in an 11-page investigative review obtained by CBC through freedom of information laws.
That report said decisions on Okemow's medical care were made through a phone consultation with an on-call doctor in Thompson, Man., more than 250 kilometres away.
When RCMP officers went to check on Okemow after that 911 call on Nov. 28, 2012, they found two empty pill bottles at her home. Initially, she admitted to ingesting too much metformin — a commonly prescribed Type 2 diabetes drug. She then backtracked and said she hadn't taken anything.
She voluntarily went with police to the Gods Lake Narrows nursing station, which provided the only medical care available in the northeastern Manitoba fly-in community.
Nurses tested her blood and an on-call doctor gave two options for Okemow's medical treatment: medically transport her to Thompson for further observation or keep her in RCMP holding cells for the night.
When the nurse hesitated and asked again if she should send Okemow to Thompson, the doctor said, "send her to the cells," according to the report
Okemow was not accused of, or charged with, a crime, but under provincial legislation, police can detain an intoxicated person if they feel they are a danger to themselves or others.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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