Investigation
Taser Used During Mental Health Arrest
Date Published: 2018-09-10
Province: Nova Scotia
Police Agency: RCMP Lower Sackville
Summary
SiRT was contacted on May 8, 2018 by the RCMP regarding allegations made by a young woman’s mother on Facebook concerning injuries sustained by her daughter, the Affected Party (AP) when she was arrested in her residence by RCMP officers. Although the injuries sustained by the AP did not fall strictly within the definition of serious injury under the SiRT mandate, this investigation was commenced in the public interest. On May 5, 2018two calls, in a little over one hour, were made by the APs mother to 911. In the first call she reported the AP as incoherent and vomiting but otherwise calm. She indicated the AP had overdosed on an unknown drug and that this was the third time she had done so in a month and a half. An EHS ambulance and police were dispatched. The police entered the residence on the first occasion, but they did not interact with the AP. The paramedics were the only ones who dealt with the AP on this occasion. The AP did not want to go to the hospital. She was descri…