By Canadian Press

Three men, including police officer, face charges after overdose death in cell

Jun 7, 2023 | 9:14 AM

EDMONTON – An Edmonton police officer and two former community peace officers have been charged after an internal investigation into the death of man in custody.

In March 2020, a 38-year-old man was found dead inside a cell and an autopsy the next day determined he died of fentanyl toxicity.

A report from Alberta’s police watchdog released last year says hourly arousal checks were not done on the detainee as required by Edmonton police policy.

The report from the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says the detainee was left more than five hours without being checked and could not be resuscitated after someone noticed his situation.

Edmonton police say they conducted a followup investigation after the ASIRT report and forwarded the findings to the Calgary Crown Prosecution Service for an opinion.

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Mathieu Labrie, who is 32, as well as 52-year-old Jeffrey Mullenix and 35-year-old Const. Yi Yang have been charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life.

The three accused were community police officers working in a detainee unit at the time of the man’s death.

They say Yang is on administrative leave with pay and the other two accused are not employed by Edmonton police.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2023.

The Canadian Press