Coroner’s inquest planned after man dies in RCMP custody
A Carmacks man died in RCMP custody in Whitehorse last night, 16 hours after he was arrested for disturbing the peace at the local Salvation Army shelter.
Photo by Whitehorse Star
RCMP Sgt. Roger Lockwood
A Carmacks man died in RCMP custody in Whitehorse last night, 16 hours after he was arrested for disturbing the peace at the local Salvation Army shelter.
It was Raymond Silverfox’s 43rd birthday last Sunday.
He had been celebrating and drinking heavily on Monday night, something he hadn’t done for some time, a source who asked to remain anonymous told the Star today.
By the early-morning hours of Tuesday, he was violently sick, vomiting so severely that staff at the Salvation Army shelter where he was staying knew he needed medical assistance.
Staff of the Fourth Avenue shelter called 911 at 4:50 a.m. Tuesday.
Emergency medical services personnel arrived, and within minutes, at 5:05 a.m., the ambulance attendants had called the police for assistance, RCMP Sgt. Roger Lockwood said today.
He could not say whether police were called because the man was violent, but according to Lockwood, officers did not need to use their Tasers, batons or any physical force to place the man under arrest.
No one from the territorial emergency medical services or community services branches would give any information on why the police were called or what medical assistance Silverfox was given before he was arrested.
Police then took the man to the cells at the RCMP detachment on Fourth Avenue.
He did not receive any further medical attention, Lockwood said, until 6:43 that night, when officers noticed “he was unresponsive.”
He could not say if Silverfox was alone, or in a shared cell.
Police called for an ambulance, and in the mean time, “administered first aid,” Lockwood said. He could not give any details about what exactly police did to try to revive the man.
According to Lockwood, police will take someone to the cells instead of to Whitehorse General Hospital “if he’s too violent to go to hospital or if he doesn’t need medical attention.”
That decision is made by officers on the scene.
“He should have been in hospital,” the Star’s source said today.
Silverfox eventually got to the hospital, but it was too late. He was pronounced dead at 9:13 last night.
Because Silverfox died while in police custody, the RCMP and Yukon’s chief coroner, Sharon Hanley, have launched an investigation into his death.
The internal RCMP investigation will be overseen by officers from B.C.‘s major crimes unit, according to Lockwood.
The Yukon’s coroner will be assisted by the coroner’s office in B.C.
Hanley said Silverfox’s body will be sent south for a full autopsy, likely within the next two days.
Silverfox’s family has been told of his death, she said.
As with all in-custody deaths, there will be an inquest into what happened between the time police picked up Silverfox and the time he died.
Coroner’s inquests are run much like trials, except that the coroner, instead of a judge, presides, and the jury is made up of six people, not 12.
JT
Dec 4, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I doubt he was putting up much of a fight if he was so sick that the salvation army called 911. They would have called the police if he was violent. The officers should be held accountable for not sending a sick man to the hospital. He probably had alcohol poisoning and that is why he died. Why on earth would you put him in the drunk tank?