Death in Halifax police custody raises questions about response to mental health calls

A man died in Halifax police custody after a stun gun was used to subdue him.

A neighbour of the man who was killed over the weekend while in police custody in Halifax says officers responded multiple times leading up to his death.

Kimberly MacIntyre, who lives in the condo building where the police interaction occurred, says she had called police Thursday because he was outside her door “and clearly not in a good state.” She says the man, whose name she doesn’t know, lived on the floor above her.

She says officers were also at the building on Friday, talking to the man’s mother, and again on Saturday morning.

“She said that she believed that he was going to be going to the hospital for a month for help, and he never left with them that night,” MacIntyre tells CTV News.

At about 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Halifax Regional Police (HRP) was called to the building on Vimy Avenue in Fairview “where they found a 25-year-old man experiencing a mental health crisis.”

According to a news release, “the man became aggressive with police and a Taser was deployed.”

But Halifax police said while in custody, “the man’s health began showing signs of deterioration.”

First responders began life-saving efforts, but the man was pronounced dead by EHS.

The province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) and the medical examiner are both investigating.

“It gives me no faith in the system,” MacIntyre says. “We failed him. They could have prevented this by getting him services.”

HRP isn’t commenting on the case as it’s now in the hands of SIRT – and SIRT declined an interview request Monday, saying its executive director Erin Nauss “is open to an interview at a later time when it’s more appropriate and there is additional information to share.”

Mental health calls

While further details of the case aren’t known, CTV Public Safety Analyst and former O.P.P. commissioner Chris Lewis says, “Quite often, there are other physical health issues at play.”

“The use of the Taser itself, in very, very few circumstances that I’m aware of in North America, has actually caused a death,” he says. “What was the cause of death and what did the officers do that may or may not have contributed to that death?”

Archie Kaiser, a Schulich School of Law professor at Dalhousie University with a cross-appointment to the Department of Psychiatry, says approximately 70 per cent of people who die during encounters with police have mental health and substance issues.

A case like this reopens the discussion about who should respond to mental health-related calls, but he says the answer is clear.

“When there isn’t an imminent threat or criminality, then clearly the police need not attend,” he says. “It would be much better if experienced mental health care and support workers were the ones who came to respond to the person in crisis.”

He says two police forces in the U.K. previously stopped attending many mental health calls.

But tragedies like this one should be part of a larger public inquiry, he says.

“This is symptomatic of so many broader issues that the public will need to understand how this and other crises like it have occurred and what can be done to prevent them in the future.”

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