British Columbia

On July 18, 2017, shortly after 10 p.m., Dale Culver lay face down on the street in downtown Prince George.

He’d rolled onto his stomach as an RCMP officer sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. As more officers arrived, one punched him in the head. Others kneed or kicked him in the head or upper body, pummelled his legs with “hammer fists” and twisted his ear as they tried to arrest him. As roughly seven officers surrounded him, an officer sprayed pepper spray into his gloved hand and held it over Culver’s face.

“I can’t breathe,” Culver said at one point during the arrest.

Culver, who was Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan, was eventually placed in handcuffs, brought to his feet and walked with assistance to a police vehicle, where he again told officers he was struggling to breathe. When paramedics assessed him about a half-hour after his altercation with police, he was responsive. Less than a minute later, he collapsed and died.

On April 5, the BC Prosecution Service announced it would abandon its case against two RCMP officers charged with manslaughter in Culver’s death. A 12-page statement from the BCPS, which includes details about the night Culver died and how BCPS grappled with forensic evidence in the years that followed, explains why Crown lawyers decided to stay proceedings against the officers. The Tyee is supported by readers like you Join us and grow independent media in Canada

Three forensic pathologists working with the BC Coroners Service initially agreed that police actions the night Culver died contributed to his death.

A year ago, BCPS laid manslaughter charges against Const. Paul Ste-Marie and Const. Jean Francois Monette. Both pleaded not guilty.

But as the officers’ pretrial inquiry approached, Crown counsel made the rare move of seeking input from an independent pathologist — Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Pollanen. His dissenting opinion resulted in the charges being stayed earlier this month.

“Based on the evidence available, the BCPS is not able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the two officers committed a criminal offence in relation to the arrest of Mr. Culver,” BCPS wrote in its statement.

Once charges are stayed, the Crown has one year to resume proceedings before they are dropped.