Racial bias dismissed in Crowshoe case
Watchdog releases results of investigation into case involving teen found dead in 2014
Racial bias didn’t play a role in how city police handled the disappearance of Colton Crowshoe, says Alberta’s police watchdog.
However, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) did cite several problems with how Calgary police deal with missing persons cases as a whole, saying errors and oversights were made.
“Evidence gathered in the ASIRT investigation clearly demonstrates that the initial stage of this investigation was beset by a series of assumptions, errors and oversights by CPS personnel,” said ASIRT executive director Susan Hughson, criticizing police for not following established missing person policy protocols.
“As a result, there was minimal investigation of the missing person report, no followup or file continuity, no accountability or file ownership, a failure to document relevant new information, and most importantly, no police-initiated communication with the family.”
ASIRT released the results of the nearly three-year long investigation on Thursday, an inquiry prompted by allegations of bias by members of the 18-year-old’s family.
Family members reported him missing to police on July 6, 2014, three days after the teen was last seen leaving a house party in Abbeydale.
Police divers pulled Crowshoe’s body from a nearby storm pond on July 24, a death later ruled by investigators a homicide and one that remains unsolved.
Crowshoe’s family said investigators didn’t take seriously their pleas to investigate the teen’s disappearance as suspicious, implying that systemic racism against indigenous people prompted officers to dismiss their concerns.
“The investigation yielded no evidence of the presence of some form of dishonest or nefarious intent,” Hughson said during Thursday’s news conference.
She said such allegations were specifically addressed in the investigation, and maintains no evidence of bias was found by ASIRT.
“The investigation tended to support an inference that racial bias or profiling was not a factor,” she said.
Allegations that Crowshoe was physically abused while in police custody in the days before his disappearance were also levelled by his family, claiming the teen described being brutalized by officers after a July 2, 2014, arrest for breaking and entering.
Hughson said police arrested Crowshoe after reports of somebody attempting to open patio doors on a home.
When confronted by the witness, Crowshoe allegedly fled over a fence and into a garage, where he was later found by police.
Hughson said Crowshoe was found in possession of property allegedly taken from a vehicle parked in the garage. Police said Crowshoe was co-operative when taken into custody, and was sporting small facial scratches consistent with running through bushes.
While being transported downtown to the CPS Court Services Section (CSS) to be booked on his charges, Hughson said Crowshoe passively resisted officers, refusing to follow commands and went limp when physically placed inside a van.
The 90 minutes Crowshoe spent in CSS was entirely documented by surveillance video, Hughson said.
“A fulsome review of the evidence, and in particular, the videos from CSS indicated that specifics of an assault in custody as described by the young man to his family did not happen,” Hughson said, adding the only questionable incident was a “very brief” physical contact while in custody.
The encounter occurred when an officer supervising Crowshoe, asked to remove a necklace prior to entering a holding cell, briefly placed the teen in a headlock — an action Hughson said appeared to exceed what would have been reasonable force, prompting ASIRT to forward the matter to Alberta Crown prosecutors.
“It was the opinion of the Crown that the matter would not meet the Crown standard for prosecution,” Hughson said, saying the officer in question would not be charged.