Report slams Thunder Bay police probe of death
The investigation into Stacy DeBungee’s death was mishandled from the start, according to a scathing report into the conduct of the Thunder Bay Police officers who investigated the death of a Rainy River First Nation man.
The report to be made public Monday says officers came to premature conclusions about how he died because DeBungee was Indigenous. It also confirms allegations from DeBungee’s family from the time of his death on Oct. 19, 2015 that police failed to properly investigate.
His case started an wider probe into the entire Thunder Bay Police Services force for systemic racism into Indigenous death and disappearance cases.
The body of DeBungee, 41, was discovered during the inquest into the deaths of seven Indigenous students who died while at school in Thunder Bay. The Thunder Bay police were under fire at the inquest for prematurely issuing press releases into the deaths of some of the students before autopsies were completed.
Between 2000 and 2011, seven First Nations students died while attending high school in Thunder Bay.
THUNDER BAY continued on A9
Five of the students were found dead in the river.
A 126-page report by Office of the Independent Police Review Director found sufficient evidence to establish neglect of duty and discreditable conduct by Const. Shawn Whipple, neglect of duty and discreditable conduct by Detective Shawn Harrison, and neglect of duty by Acting Insp. Susan Kaucharik.
“This sudden death should have been treated as potential homicide — and investigated as such,” the report states.
“There was no basis to affirmatively rule out foul play based on observations made at the scene or even after the autopsy examination.”
Investigators’ speculation that DeBungee fell down drunk and rolled into the river “was no substitute for an evidencebased and informed investigation, the report states, adding that a coroner’s determination that DeBungee drowned and that intoxication was a contributing factor is compatible with both accidental or criminal activity. Other findings include: Officers, including Harrison, “showed a deeply troubling misconception about what a deeply troubling misconception about what a criminal investigation entails.” Several officers said because there was no evidence of foul play, it remained a non-criminal matter with no need for further investigation.
No formal statements were taken from any of the people who were with DeBungee shortly before his death, something the report calls “remarkable.” Police spoke to some briefly in a group setting but they should have been formally interviewed, and recorded.
Amedia release issued by police on the day DeBungee’s body was found stated that an initial investigation didn’t “indicate a suspicious death.” Another is- sued a day later said his death was deemed “non-criminal.” “Those media releases presupposed, even before the autopsy had been performed, that the death was not a criminal matter. “A potential homicide should be treated as a serious matter.”
Police investigators provided inadequate or no direction to the forensics identification unit. No video was taken at the scene and no photos were taken of the body or the riverbank close to where DeBungee was found.
Only sporadic efforts were made to contact a man who some said was the last person to see DeBungee alive. He was eventually interviewed.
Police failed to conduct a broad canvas of businesses and homes as was “standard fare for a potential homicide.”
Exhibits were returned to DeBungee’s family without any forensic examination done on them.
The review’s author accepted that Harrison and other officers believed they do not engage in differential treatment based on race.
“However, the evidence overwhelming supports the inference that Detective Harrison and Det-Const. Whipple prematurely concluded that (DeBungee) rolled into the river and drowned without any external intervention,” the report states. “It can also be reasonable inferred that this premature conclusion may have been drawn because the deceased was Indigenous.”
Julian Falconer, the lawyer for Rainy River First Nation, is expected to release the report at a Monday news conference with DeBungee’s family.