Mounties cleared in death of woman who was motionless in cell for nearly an hour before help sought: IIU

August 21, 2024 Canuck

It took a civilian guard almost an hour to realize a 23-year-old woman who had stopped moving in an RCMP holding cell last year needed help, according to a police watchdog report on the woman’s death.

Manitoba’s Independent Investigation Unit released the results of its investigation into the death of Janine Walker on Wednesday.

She was detained by RCMP in Chemawawin Cree Nation, about 400 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, in March last year after being arrested for being intoxicated. She was found dead in her cell 15 hours later.

Her family was left searching for answers after a year went by and they still didn’t know what caused her death.

“It really bothers me every day, not knowing what happened to her, and I vowed and promised her kids that I will get them answers,” Vernon Highway, Janine’s father, told CBC News in June of this year.

A portrait of a man in a tank top between two candles. The candles show the picture of a young woman. — Vernon Highway, Janine Walker’s father, said he was left searching for answers after his daughter’s in-custody death. (Gary Solilak/CBC)

The Independent Investigation Unit report released Wednesday said that according to a medical examiner’s report, the cause of Walker’s death was noted as cocaine toxicity, and cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart) was a significant contributing condition.

The watchdog agency, which is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Manitoba, ultimately cleared officers of any wrongdoing, stating they did not contribute to her death.

The 11-page report said on March 22, 2023, police responding to a complaint about an intoxicated woman arrested Walker and took her back to the detachment. She did not appear to need medical treatment, the report said.

She was placed in a cell just after 8 p.m.

Security video from inside Walker’s cell showed her making a series of spastic movements just after 9 a.m., and she appeared to be gasping for air. Five minutes later, she had stopped moving.

RCMP policy says a civilian guard is supposed to physically check on a detainee once every 15 minutes.

The guard on duty told the investigative unit that he used a monitor at his desk to watch Walker in her cell.

He said she slept most of the night, but woke up several times and asked for water. She also complained she was cold, so the guard turned up the heat, which made it difficult for him to hear what was happening in her cell.

The guard said later that morning, when the heater turned off and he didn’t hear Walker snoring, he went to check on her. He saw through the window that Walker was lying on her back on the cell’s bench and covered by a blanket, but when he didn’t hear breathing, he knocked on the door and called her name.

According to the security video footage, that was shortly before 10 a.m.

There was no response, so he told the detachment services assistant, who he believed was the only other person in the building, that Walker needed help. She called officers for help, since neither she nor the civilian guard were allowed to enter the cell.

An RCMP officer arrived about five to 10 minutes later and began CPR.

Nurses from the nearby nursing station were also called for help, but it was too late. Walker was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m.

‘Tragic set of circumstances’: report

According to the IIU report, there was no evidence that she had had injuries that required medical attention. She was co-operative and she appeared healthy when police arrested her, the report said.

“This is truly a tragic set of circumstances,” it concludes.

A portrait of a man in a ball cap and a blue button-up shirt. — John Ettawakapow, 54, died in a holding cell in The Pas, Man., in 2019, after another detainee’s leg fell on his neck. An inquest found it was hours before anyone physically checked on him. (Hemauer Funeral Home)

The report comes just two months after an inquest into the 2019 death of John Ettawakapow, 54, who died in a jail cell in The Pas following his arrest for public intoxication.

The inquest found the guards in that RCMP detachment were also relying on monitors rather than physical checks on their inmates.

Ettawakapow died after another detainee’s leg fell on his neck. The inquest found it was hours before anyone physically checked on him, but that if someone had removed the leg, his life could have been saved.

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