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Man Dies in Jail Cell After Being Arrested by Skypigs
Contributed by blackandred on Thu, 2007-11-01 23:21.
In sections:
Latest police-cell death brings call for independent probe
by Frank Luba; The Province - Thursday, November 01, 2007
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=bbd6ed3...
Another death of a man in police custody has renewed calls from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association for an independent agency to investigate such deaths.
Cecil Edward McKenna, 50, died Sunday morning in the Surrey RCMP jail cells after being arrested around 7:15 p.m. Saturday at the Surrey Central SkyTrain station by the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (Transit) Police Service.
McKenna was a Surrey resident who had a criminal record dating back to 1997.
His death was the latest in a long list of deaths of people while in police custody.
B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director Murray Mollard cited coroner's service statistics that an average of 18 people have died in police custody every year since 1992.
"It's astounding," said Mollard yesterday. "It's a common, regular, monthly occurrence in B.C. That's not to say that in every case police misconducted themselves or are responsible for the deaths."
But Mollard objects to the police investigating themselves.
"There needs to be a much better and more proactive system for independent, civilian, impartial investigation into these deaths," said Mollard, who called on B.C. Solicitor- General John Les and federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to create an agency to do those investigations.
Sunday's incident began with a passenger complaint of a disturbance, according to GVTAPS Sgt. Jason White.
McKenna was arrested "for being intoxicated in a public place," he said. "We transported him over to the Surrey RCMP."
McKenna was unresponsive in the cell at 6 a.m. His death is being investigated by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the coroner's service.
"It's a sudden death which occurred in police custody so we have to investigate how it happened, why it happened," said Corp. Dale Carr of IHIT.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
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