File Photo/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

POLICE

ASIRT says no criminality in Medicine Hat man’s August 2023 death

Oct 9, 2024 | 5:59 PM

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says a man’s death after he was arrested by Medicine Hat police last year was not criminal.

ASIRT, the provincial body charged with investigating events where serious injury or death occurred, was directed to investigate the conduct of police.

It’s executive director Michael Ewenson wrote in the a report released Wednesday that “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct constituted a criminal offence.”

The Medicine Hat Police Service received a call on Aug. 6, 2023, that a man armed with a machete was screaming about an imaginary person, according to the report.

He was yelling that people had kidnapped his family, according to witnesses. One person said they believed he used methamphetamine.

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat and area: Dec. 13-15

Dec 14, 2024

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

Dec 12, 2024

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

Dec 12, 2024

The man threatened the responding police, who brought in tactical officers and crisis negotiators.

Police tried increasing levels of force, including pepperball munitions and, at one point when the man approached the police officers, used hard plastic projectiles known as ARWEN rounds.

A strong irritant gas was used that forced the man to open the door of his apartment but it did not make him leave.

As police used more gas, the man was forced out onto his third-floor balcony where he took a position on the ground against a railing.

A pair of Medicine Hat Police Service tactical officers shot the man with an energy weapon from the ladder of a fire truck before using a pin and hold technique with a shield and the man was disarmed after more ARWEN rounds were fired at his limbs.

The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody. He was treated for soft-tissue injuries and sent to hospital in stable condition, according to the report.

The man’s health deteriorated at the hospital. He went into cardiac arrest before later dying. His cause of death was ruled via autopsy to be “ST-elevation myocardial infarction in the setting of methamphetamine intoxication and police restraint.”