Jury at Sask. in-cell suicide inquest recommends changes to training and police search policies
Jeremy Sabourin was 40 when he died in Oct. 2021 by suicide, according the jury
Warning: this story contains a description of suicide.
The jury in the coroner's inquest into the death of Jeremy Sabourin has released a lengthy list of recommendations for the Moose Jaw Police Service and Saskatchewan RCMP aimed at avoiding similar in-custody suicides in the future.
Sabourin was 40 years old in October 2021, when he concealed a small five-shot revolver on the inside of his pants while being arrested by RCMP and later shot himself in a police cell at the Moose Jaw Police Service's station.
Multiple police agencies failed to detect the weapon.
The jury ruled Thursday that Sabourin died as the result of a single gun-shot wound to his head.
Their recommendations to prevent similar incidents included:
- The RCMP and Moose Jaw Police Service should require all new members to become familiar with applicable policies and all members to review policies annually.
- Both services should implement annual testing and qualification on improved physical and metal-detecting wand search techniques, with testing conducted by an external agency.
- The RCMP should have a minimum of two metal-detecting wands available at each detachment.
- The RCMP should modify its prisoner transfer form to provide more space for information and clearly indicate which fields are mandatory.
- The RCMP and Moose Jaw Police Service should provide members with annual mandatory mental health and suicide crisis training.
- That Moose Jaw Police Service should ensure its officers fill out applicable forms when prisoners come into custody.
- The Moose Jaw Police Service should modify its intake form to include a field for non-responsiveness.
- That RCMP should review its search procedure.
- The RCMP and Moose Jaw Police Service service should formalize a policy and compliance audit process, with audits at least once per year.
- The RCMP and Moose Jaw Police service should consider a breach of search policy a serious matter and use appropriate discipline.
Coroner Blaine Beaven made his own proposal after the jury made their recommendations.
He recommended that all police agencies should review the recommendations made by the jury, and where necessary modify the wording so that the recommendations apply to them.
"Prisoners are taken into custody by various police and law enforcement agencies across the province on a daily basis. This incident could have happened at any of them, and could still happen, and so these recommendations are actually relevant to them as well," said Beaven.
Jeremy Sabourin's death
Sabourin, described in an obituary as a member of the Saskatchewan Handgun Association and a local safety officer for several years, was 40 years old when he was arrested by the Assiniboia RCMP detachment on Oct. 6, 2021.
At the time of Sabourin's arrest, he had been wanted for nearly a year on an outstanding warrant for a sexual assault charge.
RCMP officers testified that Sabourin was known to be the type of person who would carry a gun in a vehicle or on his person. He was also known to be a "borderline" freeman of the land, or sovereign-citizen believer, meaning he was known to question law enforcement and reject lawful authority.
The jury heard conflicting testimony about how many times Sabourin was searched while in RCMP custody.
Testimony confirmed Sabourin was physically searched two separate times by different officers: once when he was arrested and again when he was taken back to the RCMP's Assiniboia detachment.
Some officers testified that they believed Sabourin was searched a third time when he was going to be transported to Moose Jaw. Others testified that search did not occur.
A metal-detecting wand was available to the RCMP officers, but the jury has heard that no officer used it.
When Sabourin was transported to the Moose Jaw Police Service later on Oct. 6, he was not searched by Staff Sgt. Chris Flanagan, the officer in charge of the cell block.
Flanagan testified that RCMP Const. Paul Evans, who transported Sabourin to Moose Jaw, told him the prisoner had already been searched.
Flanagan took Evans at his word and did not search Sabourin himself, despite a policy requiring him to do so.
That same policy requires everyone being placed in cells to be swiped with a metal-detecting wand, but that didn't happen.
The next day, Sabourin was supposed to be taken to court to appear on the warrant. Instead, he shot and killed himself with the concealed firearm.
The inquest heard that no one at the Assiniboia RCMP detachment faced discipline as a result of Sabourin's death.
Flanagan said that for his role in the death he was demoted from staff sergeant, the highest-ranking operational role in the Moose Jaw Police Service, to constable, the lowest rank.
In the months after Sabourin's death, the Moose Jaw Police Service reinforced the policy requiring prisoners to be searched before being placed in cells.
Saskatchewan RCMP also updated their policy around using a metal-detecting wand. Officers are now required to use the metal-detecting wand before and after a physical search is carried out.
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