A Calgary officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing in a physical interaction with a 37-year-old man who later died in hospital. The incident happened on the evening of July 8, 2021. Police were called to Abalone Way N.E. in the community of Abbeydale for reports of an intoxicated man in a truck attempting to speak with young children in the area. According to a report from the province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), an officer arrived to find the man in the driver’s seat of a truck parked on the street. The officer asked the man for documentation and began investigating him for impaired driving. According to ASIRT, it was during the investigation that a “struggle ensued” between the officer and man, at which time the suspect was “taken to the ground.” The report indicates the officer “delivered some knee strikes” to the suspect’s torso, at which time the suspect yelled out that the officer had broken his ribs. The suspect asked to be driven to the hospital, but the officer informed him that he couldn’t take him there, but had EMS attend to check out the suspect. The ASIRT report indicates that although paramedics offered to take the suspect to the South Health Campus, he “refused,” indicating he only wanted to go to the Peter Lougheed Centre. ASIRT says the man “remained steadfast” that he would only go to the Peter Lougheed. He eventually signed an EMS waiver and was left with the officer. As he had failed a roadside screening test, his licence was suspended, and he was driven home by the officer. Upon arriving home, the suspect told his wife about what happened, and they drove to the Peter Lougheed together, where they waited for several hours for the suspect to be seen by doctors. Doctors determined the man needed to be transferred to the Foothills Medical Centre for immediate surgery. While at the Foothills, staff advised the suspect’s family that he was not going to survive due to his injuries and end-stage liver disease. He died in the early evening on July 10, 2021. In 2021, the suspect’s family identified him as Ramon ‘Will’ Perez. ASIRT says an autopsy determined that Perez’s cause of death was “blunt force traumatic injuries, with other significant conditions contributing to the death, but not causally related to the immediate cause being liver cirrhosis and acute ethanol intoxication.” ASIRT notes in its report that it was later determined that Perez was in the Abbeydale area after having visited a terminally ill friend, and had spoken to the children “simply to seek direction while driving.” ASIRT executive director Michael Ewenson concluded the report by saying the officer was lawfully placed and acting properly in the execution of his duties. “There is no evidence to support any inference that he engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to a criminal offence. The force used was necessary, reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances, notwithstanding the tragic outcome.”
