A man who was seriously injured during an arrest in Vancouver earlier this month has died, B.C.’s police watchdog has confirmed.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC notified the public of the man’s death on Friday, nearly three weeks after the agency says he was arrested and lodged in cells at the Vancouver Police Department jail.
“The man went into medical distress on the morning of May 1, 2023 while in custody of the Vancouver Police Department. He was taken to a hospital for treatment but did not survive,” the IIO said in a statement on May 19.
A Vancouver police staff member who was working at the jail at the time of the man’s April 30 arrest and subsequent in-custody death has been suspended with pay, according to the VPD.
“There is now an independent investigation taking place,” VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison wrote in an email to CTV News on Tuesday, referring the ongoing work of the IIO. “We expect that investigation will determine how the prisoner died and if any actions by our staff contributed to that death,” he concluded.