THUNDER BAY — The coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Don Mamakwa and Roland McKay entered its ninth day of testimony on Tuesday. After focusing on evidence relating to the circumstances of Mamakwa’s death up to this point, it is now turning to testimony relating to the death of McKay.
Mamakwa, 44, of Kasabonika First Nation died while in custody at the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters on Aug. 3, 2014. McKay, 50, of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, died on July 19, 2017.
Kate Forget, counsel on behalf of the coroner, began by reading into the record an agreed statement of facts relating to the night McKay died.
According to the agreed statement of facts, just after 7:30 p.m. on July 19, 2017, a 911 call was made regarding a man behind a business at the Thunder Centre described as unconscious. The man was identified as Roland McKay.
Paramedics with Superior North EMS and officers with the Thunder Bay Police Service attended the scene. An assessment of McKay was conducted by paramedics and while his vitals were elevated, he said he did not want to go to the hospital.
McKay said he wanted to go to a friend’s house and according to interviews conducted by the Special Investigations Unit, two people said they were spoken to by police and asked if they knew someone named Marlin McKay, which Roland McKay was also known to some.
Both individuals told SIU investigators that the police officers did not say anything about asking McKay to stay with them.
McKay was transported to the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters and placed in a cell. During one of the checks by an officer, he was noted to not be moving. A further check was conducted and it was determined he was not breathing.
Officers began CPR and an ambulance was called. He was transported to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Earlier testimony revealed he died as a result of hypertensive heart disease.
The inquest jury viewed video surveillance footage from inside the police station showing McKay being brought into the booking room and the cell. In the video, he is seen walking next to a police officer and when he was brought into the cell he was sitting upright, began swaying, and then laid down and stopped moving not long after.
Myles Vescio and Summer Philion-Aichinger, the two primary care paramedics with Superior North EMS who first responded to the 911 call, also testified on Tuesday.
Philion-Aichinger said when they first arrived at the scene, McKay was waving them away, but they proceeded to exit the ambulance and investigate the situation.
An assessment was conducted that found McKay’s vitals, such as his heart rate and blood pressure, to be elevated above normal parameters.
“I noted it was elevated but in the case of just assumption that he appeared to be a larger set male, appeared to have some substance or alcohol use issues, so he appeared to be in poor general health so his vitals seemed elevated but it might not be far off from what is norms would be,” Philion-Aichinger said.
Vescio added that a visual assessment, also known as the ‘look test,’ was conducted and he did not appear to be symptomatic of his elevated vital signs.
“He passed what we call the look test,” he said. “He had no complaints, he didn’t appear to be suffering any distress.”
After police arrived, Philion-Aichinger said McKay made it clear that he did not want to go to the hospital and wanted to go to a friend’s house instead.
“I believe I asked him twice,” she said. “I asked him if there was anything he needed to go to the hospital for today and if he wanted to go to the hospital. It just seemed like he wasn’t very happy that we were there.”
Individuals cannot be transported to the hospital against their will unless they are threatening to harm themselves or unable to make a proper judgement of the care needed.
At the time, paramedics were not required to obtain a signature of the patient or statement from witnesses on the refusal for transport, but that has since changed.
Philion-Aichinger said at the time she did not believe he needed to go to the emergency department but added if he did request to go, he would have been taken.
“We do have a lot of calls that do go in a very similar fashion where we show up, the patient doesn’t want to go, or is too intoxicated to refuse, so they go to the hospital to sober up, or an allied agency, like police or SOS pick up individuals who need a ride and take them to Shelter House or somewhere they can be monitored to some capacity,” she said.
“We still got out and assessed him to make sure he was OK. If he had voiced some concerns as to how he was feeling on top of these numbers on our monitor, I would have elected to go into further details that he should go to the hospital if he wasn’t feeling well.”
The Balmoral Detox Centre was contacted but no beds were available that night.
Both Philion-Aichinger and Vescio agreed that more detox spaces are needed in the city to assist in these situations and alleviate pressures on EMS services, which are often faced with an average of two to six hours of offload delays at the hospital and code black situations when no ambulances are available in the city.
“Mr. McKay, in my eyes, was going to be watched or in someone else’s presence, he wasn’t going to be by himself,” Philion-Aichinger said. “Having a bigger facility where more people can go and have hours and hours of monitored care and have the resources to get help, it would really relieve this pressure that goes on emergency.”
“We desperately need a large centre where people can safely detox,” Vescio added. “They are at risk of having a secondary emergency while on offload delay at the hospital. We don’t have an appropriate alcohol substitute for people going through detox.”
In his 11 years as a paramedic, Vescio said he has only successfully transported an individual to the detox centre twice, the only times beds were available.
Prior to moving into evidence involving McKay’s death, the jury heard testimony from former Thunder Bay Police Service Staff Sgt. William Boote, who was working as the watch commander the night of Aug. 3, 2014 when Mamakwa died while in a cell at the Police Service headquarters.
According to Boote, he runs a ‘tight ship’ as watch commander and does not micromanage the jailers. He said he had every confidence in Const. Sherry Heyder working as jailer that night, but he admitted he was not happy with what happened the night Mamakwa died.
“I am sure Const. Heyder and myself, if we had known certain things, would have responded differently,” he said, referring to having knowledge that Mamakwa was diabetic.
When asked specifically what he wasn’t happy about regarding the night of Aug. 3, 2014, Boote referred to Mamakwa being deceased in a cell for several hours before being discovered.
“Even if we had caught him deceased on the floor at midnight, it still would have been a coroner’s inquest. Even if he was taken to the hospital and died several days later, it would still be a coroner’s inquest and custodial death,” he said.
“I am not happy because it is inappropriate for this gentleman to lay on the floor deceased for three hours and we didn’t discover him. I don’t think it goes to his dignity.”
The recommendations Boote suggested during his testimony that could help prevent similar deaths from happening in the future focused on the need for a new police station.
According to Boote, a new facility would provide an updated cellblock with better video and audio surveillance to protect those in custody from harming themselves and officers to better monitor what is going on in the cells.
“That station is old and beat up. They need a new station,” he said. “The power going into the building is insufficient. There are brown outs. It was built and there was a lot of cost savings. This city is reluctant to spend money on policing.”
Testimony in the inquest resumes on Wednesday.
