New BrunswickAn arrest last year of a man in medical distress in a Shediac apartment who later died did not involve any criminality from RCMP officers who responded, a report says.43-year-old man in Shediac was aggressive during arrest, SiRT saysSam Farley · CBC News · Posted: Sep 11, 2025 2:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoThe Serious Incident Response Team, also known as SIRT, investigated RCMP actions during the arrest of a man in Shediac last year. The man later died in hospital. (Submitted by SIRT)An arrest last year of a man in medical distress in a Shediac apartment who later died did not involve any criminality from RCMP officers who responded, a report says.The Serious Incident Response Team, led by director Erin Nauss, has the authority to investigate all matters that involve death, serious injury, sexual assault and intimate partner violence or other matters of a public interest that may have arisen from the actions of a police officer in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The report relates to an incident in Shediac on May 29, 2024, when the RCMP responded to a medical assistance call from paramedics in the southeastern New Brunswick community. Nauss’s report says that when the paramedics arrived, they discovered a man “having difficulty breathing, [who] was bleeding, and was being uncooperative.” The man is not identified in the report, which relied on interviews with the responding officers. Due to the man’s “erratic behaviour, and for safety reasons,” the paramedics called the RCMP for help. Nauss said when officers arrived, they found the man in a small bathroom with broken glass, surrounded by large amounts of blood and drug paraphernalia. The officer “stated that when they reached [the man], he was laying face down on the floor of the bathroom, flailing and banging his head everywhere.” Officers described the man as “excessively sweating, non-verbal, unco-operative, [and] demonstrated extreme strength.”The officers said made repeated commands for the man to show him hands, according to the report, but he did not. They first attempted to control the man with their hands, but he kicked one officer in the chest, knocking him down.Officers told Nauss they then placed the man in handcuffs, and then “he started to flail, kick and bang his head again.” The officers moved the man into the kitchen and placed his legs in plastic restraints, and allowed the paramedics to work. The man then “turned blue and stopped breathing.” Paramedics were able to resuscitate the man with CPR.He was then transported to hospital by ambulance, where he later died. The report said when officers processed the scene, they seized drugs, which tests later revealed to be rock cocaine. An autopsy report found the man’s cause of death to be “undetermined,” and that there were “high levels of cocaine” in his system at the time of death.The report said cocaine intoxication likely contributed to the man’s death, but that it was impossible to determine if his other blunt-force injuries were self-caused or not. “There are no reasonable grounds to believe that the [first officer present] committed a criminal offence,” Nauss wrote, as the officer’s actions “were not excessive and were reasonable in the circumstances.””This was a high-risk situation, and the [man] was being aggressive, unco-operative and did not respond to the officers’ commands,” Nauss wrote.She went on to say that the man assaulted the officers by kicking them, and that the officers and the man were in a small space covered in broken glass, which officers feared could be used as a weapon. “There was a real risk to the safety of officers and [the man], and an urgency to control [the man] so he did not harm himself further or others.” The report also included an account from an unidentified civilian witness, who said he was at the residence with the man, who was in the bathroom “and would not let her in but kept telling her he was OK.” She then saw blood coming from the bathroom. Before the man went into distress, the witness said the man appeared fine and was making food for her. The witness said the man was a known drug user, but that she did not observe him take any drugs. The report said there were two paramedics and five RCMP officers on the scene.ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Farley is a Fredericton-based reporter at CBC New Brunswick. Originally from Boston, he is a journalism graduate of the University of King’s College in Halifax. He can be reached at sam.farley@cbc.ca
Watchdog rules no RCMP criminality in death of man after arrest with stun gun
