Hardwood timber The civilian-led oversight body has concluded there are no grounds to believe any officer committed an offence during an incident that saw a man stab himself after being told he was under arrest.
Published Jan 09, 2024 • Last updated Jan 09, 2024 • 3 minute read
SIRT has stated there is no grounds to believe attending police officers committed an offence in relation to a Regina incident where a man being arrested for a child pornography offence stabbed himself. Photo by File /Postmedia Standing in the kitchen of the home he shared with his parents, the 42-year-old man was notified he was being arrested for possession of child pornography. It was then that he went for the knife.
Backing up rapidly, he reached into a drawer and grabbed the kitchen knife, drawing it upward to his chest. His mother and a police officer shouted at him, using words to the effect of: “Don’t do it.”
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As several officers drew their guns, one tried to negotiate with the man, but it was apparently in vain.
He began to stab himself — once, twice, three times, leaving what medical records later described as “penetrating” wounds.
An outline of the June 27, 2023 incident, including details forming the aforementioned telling of events, was included in a report released Tuesday by the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), as a bookend to the investigation it completed, concluding there are no grounds to believe offence was committed by any officer involved.
The report from the civilian-led oversight body that investigates serious incidents involving police notes that three officers, joined shortly by a fourth, sprang to action when the man began harming himself, and in the ensuing struggle to gain control of the knife, two officers sustained cuts to their hands.
It documents that, after the knife was secured, police provided first aid to the man, while waiting for EMS to arrive. While he was taken to hospital in “serious condition,” he was treated and released from hospital before providing SIRT investigators with an interview while in jail.
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“The affected person indicated he had little memory of the incident, but stated he felt forced to take the actions he did, though he was unable to clearly articulate how he was forced or the basis for that belief,” the SIRT report states.
It states SIRT was notified of the incident at about 10:20 a.m. on the date of the incident — the knock on the door of the home, as ICE and uniformed Regina Police Service officers prepared to execute the warrant, came at 6:50 a.m. that morning.
Between the knock and the man’s episode of self harm, he’d been shown the warrant, was advised of his rights, and was given permission to call a lawyer in the privacy of a bathroom, according to the report.
While he was unco-operative, not giving police passwords for electronic devices found in his basement bedroom, ICE officers located on the USB drives what they viewed as sufficient evidence to make the arrest, nonetheless.
The SIRT investigation included interviews of eight officers, a civilian RCMP technician, the “affected person,” his 70-year-old mother who saw the events unfold, and his 72-year-old father who refused to provide a recorded statement but said he did not observe the events, according to the report.
“It is beyond dispute that the serious injury sustained by the affected person during this incident was self-inflicted,” the report notes.
As for the potential for jeopardy to police based on negligence, the report concludes that such offences require “demonstration of wanton or reckless disregard” for life and safety.
“In this case, the evidence falls far short of demonstrating such a departure,” it concludes.
Instead, the report states that it is “evident” that officers demonstrated “significant concern for preserving the life of the affected person.”
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