Boushie family disappointed by RCMP probe
Response to insensitivity complaint leaves group feeling hopeless: lawyer
Members of Col ten Bo us hi e’ s family are saddened and disheartened that an internal RCMP investigation found its officers did not act unacceptably or insensitively when they informed his mother that he’d been fat ally shot on a Saskatchewan farm.
“They’re disappointed to know that, in many ways, this is their lot — to be disbelieved by the RCMP,” said Chris Murphy, a Toronto-based lawyer who represents the family.
“It just leads to a feeling of hopelessness.”
Boushie’s family filed a public complaint with the RCMP in December 2016, expressing concern about the way officers surrounded the family trailer on Aug. 9, 2016, and told Debbie Baptiste her son was dead.
The family said the way police vehicles surrounded Baptiste’s home on the Red Pheasant First Nation was insensitive, that it was unacceptable for an officer to tell her to “get it together” and to ask if she had been drinking, and that it was illegal for officers to search the trailer.
In a letter sent to the family, RCMP Supt. Mike Gibbs said a “thorough investigation” was done into the complaints and it found no evidence that officers behaved inappropriately.
Gibbs wrote that RCMP interaction with the Boushie family was “unique” because officers were still looking for am an who may have witnessed of officers were sent to the home for “safety and tactical reasons,” he wrote.
“It was determined that the officers had received information that a male, who fled the homicide investigation, had been dropped off at Red Pheasant First Nation at a trailer matching that of Mrs. Baptiste’s residence. Based on evidence at the scene, there was a possibility that the male could be in possession of a firearm,” he wrote.
“As a result, the officers attending had two tasks; one was to deliver the NOK (next of kin) notification to Ms. Debbie Baptiste and the other was to safely locate this male. The fact that both tasks were to take place at the same residence at the same time was, as expressed by the investigator, extremely ‘unique’ in nature. The situation made it difficult and not possible to deal with both tasks separately.”
In his letter, Gibbs said no officers recalled hearing anyone ask Baptiste if she had been drinking or telling her to “get it together.”
“Based on the unique set of circumstances, I can acknowledge how the officer’s approach could have been perceived as insensitive and for this the RCMP apologizes. However, given the safety risks involved, the ongoing homicide investigation, and the limited information that could be provided by and to the officers, the approach the RCMP had to take was tactical in nature and in this situation it was acceptable.”
Gibbs said two officers reported that one of Baptiste’s sons gave an officer permission to search the trailer, which Boushie’s family disputes.
“There was no definitive evidence other than the word of the witnesses and the police,” he wrote. “Based on the difference in the recollection of the events by witnesses and that of the officers, I am unable to support your allegation.”
The family also complained that an RCMP news release about Boushie’s death made him look like a criminal. Gibbs said that wasn’t the intent and that protocol was followed when it was sent out. He said the RCMP now gets releases regarding sensitive matters involving Indigenous people reviewed in advance by Aboriginal Police Services.
The only complaint from the family that the RCMP found was substantiated was that a person who was in custody in connection with the shooting was in the back seat of a police vehicle when it pursued two other vehicles. Gibbs said the officers were rushed and did not notice she was there. The pursuit reached speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour for about one kilometre before it was called off.
Gibbs said the officers in the car received “operational guidance” on emergency vehicle operations and safe handling of prisoners.
Murphy called the letter from Gibbs “shocking.”
“I don’t believe it. … I believe that this is an after-the-fact justification of what the RCMP did the night Colten Boushie died because the two versions of events just cannot coexist,” he said.
If police truly believed an armed person was in Baptiste’s trailer they would have cleared the home first, instead of first informing Baptiste of her son’s death and then asking one of her other sons for permission to search, he argued.
Speaking to media in Regina on Thursday, RCMP Staff Sgt. Rob Embree said the family can ask for their complaints to be investigated by the RCMP’s civilian review and complaints commission, an independent agency that ensures complaints against the RCMP are examined fairly.
He could not say why the RCMP did not have an external investigator look into the family’s complaints. “Obviously a threshold has to be met in each and every situation,” Embree said. “That decision has to be made at a higher level than me, but what I’m saying is, basically, it would have been looked at and it would have been determined that an investigation would have been done at our level.”
Embree said he “could not talk to” why RCMP officers did not search the home before talking to Baptiste if they believed an armed man was inside. He did not have much to say on the inconsistencies between the officers’ version and the Boushie family’s version of events.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of lying. An investigation was done and the results of the investigation were given to the family,” he said.
Murphy said the family was frustrated that Colten’s name was spelled incorrectly in the letter sent to the family (it was consistently spelled Colton).
“Hopefully we can correct that moving forward,” Embree said. A news release sent out by RCMP after the news conference again spelled Colten’s name wrong.
Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron said he was not surprised the RCMP cleared themselves of wrongdoing in this case. He said the FSIN will continue to stand behind the family.
Boushie was 22 years old when he and four other people drove onto a farm in the RM of Glenside near Biggar on Aug. 9, 2016. He was fatally shot during a confrontation with the property owner, Gerald Stanley. The incident ignited racial tensions in the province. Some suggested he deserved to be killed for trespassing. Others pledged vigilante justice against Stanley, who is charged with second-degree murder and scheduled to stand trial in January.