Siblings of Brampton, Ont., man who died during police response to crisis demand change
Peter Campbell, 34, died April 2 after being apprehended under Mental Health Act
The siblings of a mentally ill Brampton, Ont., man who died earlier this month after a police interaction say they believe their brother would still be alive if crisis workers, rather than police officers, had responded.
Jason and Michelle Campbell spoke to CBC Toronto 10 days after their brother Peter's death.
According to the Campbells, it was the second time this year that an interaction between the 34-year-old man, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and Peel Regional Police officers allegedly turned violent after the family called 911 for help.
"They showed up like he was a criminal. They showed up to arrest him," Jason said of the April incident. "They didn't show up because somebody needed help."
Peter Campbell's death is the latest in the Toronto area and elsewhere in Canada in recent years to occur during a police response to a person experiencing a mental health crisis. The Campbells say it shows the need for systemic changes to how first responders handle mental health calls.
"I feel like there's an injustice for people who suffer with mental health," Michelle Campbell said. "They deserve to be treated as anybody else would."
The trouble on April 2 started shortly after midnight, when Peter — who lived with Jason and Jason's two sons — began stomping on the floor of his room. Jason said he worried that neighbours might make a noise complaint.
Peter then began smashing things and breaking glass, which prompted Jason to take his sons out of the apartment and drop them off at his mother's house nearby.
When Jason returned to check on Peter, he found him lying on the floor, face-up, in a pool of blood.
"I didn't know how to handle it," he said. "I definitely freaked out."
'We called for help'
Jason agonized over whether to call 911 because of what happened two months earlier, on Feb. 8, when Peter was at his mother's house and started acting erratically.
The family called 911 for help.
"When the police arrived, they first walked in and began Tasering him," Michelle said of the February incident. "After they ended up getting him out of the house, they took him to go to the front and they threw him over the banister."
"We called for help, and that's not what I feel like we received."- Michelle Campbell
Michelle said Peter suffered injuries, including a broken arm, a gash on his head and other bruises, and he spent two weeks in hospital.
"We called for help, and that's not what I feel like we received," Michelle said.
A video of the incident viewed by CBC Toronto appears to show a police officer kicking someone on the ground. The person who shot the video, who Michelle said is a neighbour, can be heard saying, "They're kicking him and he's cuffed."
WATCH: Video shot by neighbour appears to show arrest of Peter Campbell in February 2023:
Brother pleads for paramedics to respond
Despite what happened in February, Jason decided he needed assistance in the early hours of April 2.
He said he told both the emergency dispatcher and the responding officers to just send paramedics because Peter required medical attention and was non-violent, and he would respond negatively if confronted by police officers.
"I said he's no threat to anyone but himself," Jason said. "Just trying to make them understand it was a mental health emergency and not a ... criminal offence, not somebody trying to hurt somebody."
Jason asked the responding officers to be allowed to speak to his brother, but he was told he couldn't accompany them into the apartment.
According to Jason, the officers entered the apartment on their own while he waited downstairs in the lobby.
Roughly three hours after the police arrived, Jason said, he learned his brother was dead.
SIU investigating both incidents
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the independent civilian agency that investigates violent incidents between the police and public in Ontario, has taken over the investigation of both incidents.
Peel Regional Police declined to comment on both investigations while they are underway.
However, the force said in an email statement that its mobile crisis rapid response team (MCRRT) program responds to "priority front-line calls for people in mental health crisis" every day from noon to midnight. The team is made up of a crisis worker and a specially trained police officer.
The team responded to 3,016 of the 6,864 mental health calls the force received in 2022, Peel police said.
"This program is an effective way to deal with the ever-increasing calls for service involving those persons living with a mental health or an addiction-related crisis," the statement said.
It's unclear if this team responded to either incident involving Peter Campbell.
Last September, Peel police launched a separate pilot program with three community agencies in which two crisis workers are dispatched on their own to mental health and addiction calls that do not require a response from police.
This team is available 12 hours a day, seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., said Angela Carter, executive director of Roots Community Services, one of the partner agencies.
She said the team only responds to situations where there is a low risk of violence.
"We deal with clients who are agitated or we are called to situations where [there are] suicide ideations," Carter said. "If the person was acting up and throwing things and was kind of really anxious and showing any kind of high-risk behaviour, we probably would not have been sent."
Family planning wrongful death lawsuit, lawyer says
Nicole De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with Moon Gensey LPC in Brampton, said her firm represented Peter during his bail proceedings after he was charged with resisting arrest and assault following the February incident.
De Bellefeuille said those charges were dropped because the Crown had concerns about excessive force after viewing the responding officers' body camera footage.
"There was a lot of concern, I think, on all parties that the use of force was just beyond what was necessary here," De Bellefeuille said.
Peter was planning to launch a civil action against Peel police for allegedly using excessive force during his February arrest, she said, but he died before he could sign papers giving the go-ahead.
De Bellefeuille said she is now preparing to launch a wrongful death lawsuit against the police force on behalf of the Campbell family but is waiting for the results of investigations by the coroner and the SIU.
"The force here was too much and had devastating consequences," De Bellefeuille said. "We're looking to hold people accountable for that, and I'm looking forward just to getting more details."
Jason Campbell said the lawsuit isn't about money but about holding people accountable and hopefully influencing a change in how police respond to mental health calls.
"There needs to be justice," he said of his brother's death. "If his name can live on for the reason why people in his condition never get treated that way again, that's the best thing we can do for him."
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