Why the RCMP Won’t Face Consequences for Dale Culver’s Death – The Tyee

Prosecutors made the ‘extremely rare’ move to consult an independent expert — one who’s been accused of bias. His report toppled the case.

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.

Read More: https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/05/02/Why-RCMP-Consequences-Dale-Culver-Death/