HALIFAX: The Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) has determined that an RCMP officer was not responsible for the death an Antigonish man earlier this year.
At the time, Cpl. Chris Marshall confirmed to The Reporter via email that Antigonish County District RCMP responded to a report of a man walking on Highway 104, “possibly entering traffic,” at 10:35 p.m. on April 27.
Marshall said that the report was made by a member of the public, and while officers were responding to this and conducting patrols in search of the pedestrian, “one of our officers struck the pedestrian.”
The pedestrian, a 22-year-old Antigonish man, was pronounced deceased at the scene, the RCMP said, while Marshall noted that the collision took place along Highway 104 in Addington Forks.
Then at approximately 9:30 a.m. on April 28, the RCMP said a man reported that he had been in a collision on Highway 104 in Addington Forks on the night of April 27. They said the man struck an unknown object on the highway, however after learning of the fatality, he reported the collision to the RCMP for further investigation.
In accordance with the Police Act, Antigonish County District RCMP referred the investigation to SIRT, Marshall said.
SIRT released its decision on Nov. 3, ruling “that the pedestrian was deceased when the RCMP officer struck him.”
“Investigators determined that just before the officer struck the pedestrian, the driver of an 18-wheel truck, who was heading westbound on Highway 104 had heard a bang and thought he had just struck a deer in the middle of the road. After this striking, the driver noted the vehicles behind him did not swerve to avoid anything on the road,” the decision states. “The next morning, after hearing about the fatality on the highway, the truck driver feared that what he thought was a deer may be the man. The driver reported the incident to the police. DNA collected from the grill of the truck confirmed it was the man.”
SIRT noted that the events that unfolded that night were “tragic and impacted many individuals.”
“However, the investigation revealed that the two incidents were not related and therefore, there are no grounds for any charges against the RCMP officer,” according to SIRT.
According to the report, SIRT concluded its investigation on Sept. 7 which included: a number of civilian witness statements; various notes and reports from various RCMP members; reports from Ident; DNA results from the RCMP forensic lab; the autopsy report from the Medical Examiner’s Office; and photos of the highway scene and the vehicles involved.
SIRT said the victim, a young male in his early 20s who had mental health issues, was living in the James River area with his parents at the time of the collision. They said he had recently been a patient at Abbie Lane Hospital in Halifax.
“At approximately 10 p.m., the mother of the (victim) went to give her son his medication, but could not locate him in the house. She notified nearby siblings and immediately family members went looking for him,” the report states. “The (victim’s) family was concerned as the (victim) had talked about suicide on prior occasions and there was no reason to leave the house at that hour.”
The report asserts that one witness observed a young man, around 20 years of age, with short hair wearing a red jacket or shirt run from the westbound side of the road, “full tilt” to the yellow line and turn around. The witness called 911 to let them know that he felt he just observed an attempted suicide, SIRT noted.
On the same evening, April 27, another witness was operating his 18-wheeler truck in the same area of Antigonish County on the way to River John going westbound on Highway 104, the report states. It said that this witness was in front of a car and another truck when he came upon the area just west of Antigonish where the four-lane highway goes back to two lanes.
“The weather was overcast, a misty rain falling, and this area has no artificial lighting,” according to the report.
The witness observed car lights behind him in the mirror, the report reads.
“He looked and heard a bang and thought he had just struck a deer in the middle of the road,” the SIRT report said.
The witness continued on his way but did stop an hour later at a gas station to check the front of the truck for damage and to call his boss about hitting the deer, SIRT said. He noticed damage to the middle of the grill where it was dented and also noticed a piece of bone in the grill, said the report.
SIRT said the witness drove the truck to River John where he proceeded to sleep in the truck overnight. When he woke up, he had a conversation with a couple of friends where he learned about a fatal collision in the area where he had driven past last evening, according to the report.
The witness checked on Facebook about the fatal crash and feared that what he thought was a deer he struck may in fact be the victim, the report states. Along with his wife and the owner of the truck, SIRT said the witness went to the Stellarton RCMP Detachment to report what occurred the night before.
The report reads that the witness “was fully cooperative in describing that he hit something in the middle of the road, but thought it was a deer.”
The truck the witness was driving was seized by the investigator, said SIRT.
As a result of the 911 call made by the first witness, two RCMP members from the Antigonish detachment accepted the call to look for a person who may be suicidal, running out onto Highway 104 just west of Antigonish, the report said.
The first responding officer patrolled in the general area where the 911 call indicated the victim was last seen, the report states.
Although the office patrolled past the area where the victim was struck, this occurred prior to him being struck on the highway, SIRT maintains.
The report says the first responding officer was returning to Antigonish when the second responding officer “indicated he ran over something on the highway.”
At first the officer thought it maybe an animal or something low to the ground, but the report states that the officer “turned his vehicle around and checked to see what was on the road,” and found the victim lying on the highway deceased.
According to the report, members of the victim’s family who went looking for him that night, did come across the scene not long after the police discovered the body, and confirmed through clothing worn by the victim that it was their son.
The SIRT investigator took many reports from various RCMP members who were involved in this matter. The report said there was an accident reconstructionist report, as well as DNA testing done on the front grill of the driver’s truck, the front and underneath portion of officer’s vehicle and DNA taken from the victim.
Testing on both the truck and the RCMP cruiser, “showed nothing operationally wrong with either vehicle,” according to the report.
SIRT agreed with the first witness that the victim’s “intent was to commit suicide that night.”
“The two responding RCMP officers were just performing their policing duties looking for a person who may be intending to commit suicide that night, according to the 911 call,” the report reads.
According to SIRT, “the autopsy ruled the death occurred immediately from the blunt force injuries of the head, chest, abdomen, pelvis and extremities” of the victim when the truck hit him in the middle of the highway.
SIRT added that “there is nothing criminal in any way with what happened on the night in question.”