After police in P.E.I. tasered a suspect, he died on the way to the hospital.
Now, the province is asking the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), the police watchdog for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, for help investigating police conduct in the case.
SiRT says the incident happened on Oct. 11.
Officers with the Charlottetown Police Services were processing a man when he started to “behave erratically” and appeared to have a mental health crisis, according to a news release.
SiRT says the officers put the man in another room to calm down, but some time later a struggle ensued and two officers had to subdue and handcuff the man. During the altercation, SiRT says a third officer used a taser on him.
On the way to the hospital, the man went into “medical distress,” and was later pronounced dead.
P.E.I.’s Justice Department reached out to the Nova Scotia Justice Minister and asked if SiRT could look into the case “due to the seriousness of the incident.”
The departments entered an agreement, and SiRT started the investigation on Oct. 15.
Under SiRT’s typical mandate, they investigate any police cases involving death, serious injury, intimate partner violence or other matters of public interest in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
