“Heartbreaking”: that’s one of the words Cindy Woodhouse, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, used as she offered her reaction to the details released by Alberta’s police watchdog on Wednesday on the investigation into the death of a First Nations man in Calgary while he was in police custody.
The 42-year-old man, who has been identified as Jon Wells, a member of the Blood Tribe from southern Alberta, died on Sept. 17 following an encounter with police officers at the Carriage House Hotel and Conference Centre in southeast Calgary.
Police said they were called to the hotel just before 1 a.m. after someone reported “a man causing a disturbance and refusing to leave.”
In an update on the case on Wednesday, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team said that during the encounter, which lasted for several minutes, the man was unarmed, was acting “in a confused fashion” and appeared to be trying to pick things up off the floor that didn’t exist.
When an officer pointed his stun gun and told him to leave the hotel, the man raised his hands and said, “I don’t want to die.”
After an officer attempted to grab the man, a physical altercation ensued, the man was hit with the stun gun and punched in the head and handcuffs and leg restraints were applied.
ASIRT said as more officers arrived, the man was lying on the floor, bleeding from the mouth and had vomited.
A spit mask was put on the man as he was lying face down on the floor.
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EMS gave the man a sedative about seven minutes after he was handcuffed.
About three minutes later someone noticed he was unresponsive and a short time later he was pronounced dead, ASIRT said in the update.
Eugene Creighton, the commissioner of the Indian National Finals Rodeo and a distant relative of Wells, described him as a champion steer wrestler, “a big guy” and “a gentle giant.”
“He was a very, very gentle man and dedicated to the community, to his family and to his hobby of rodeo,” Creighton said. “He was a role model.”
On Thursday, the chief of the Assembly of First Nations said Wells’ death is just the latest in a series of Indigenous people’s deaths in Canada following “run-ins with police,” including eight besides Wells in the last month.
Woodhouse described the initial details from ASIRT’s investigation into Wells’ death as “horrific,” and a setback to First Nations’ efforts at reconciliation.
“There’s been too many deaths,” she said. “It’s hurtful and almost leaves you speechless. When you’re trying to work towards reconciliation, this is not helping.”
She is calling for First Nations oversight of the investigations into such incidents and more funding to support policing in Indigenous communities.
ASIRT tells Global News it has been in touch with Wells’ family and will ask if they want an Indigenous elder chosen to provide oversight to the investigation.
Responding to the ASIRT release, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld vowed Wednesday evening to fully cooperate with the investigation.
“We welcome the oversight, we welcome the transparency,” Neufeld said. “I would just ask folks to suspend judgement and let the investigation take its course.”
In the meantime, Neufeld says the three officers involved have been placed on 30-day mandatory administrative leave and CPS confirms to Global News they will continue to be paid.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said “we recognize that recent officer-involved fatal incidents in Indigenous communities have been incredibly difficult for community members, and most of all the loved ones of the deceased. Our thoughts are with them.”
“Since 2018, we have invested significantly to bolster the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program to further increase access to dedicated, culturally responsive policing services in First Nations communities,” the spokesperson said.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, but we will get there through ongoing collaboration and frank, open dialogue.”
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