A coroner’s inquest will be held this fall for a 52-year-old man who died in police custody in Port Coquitlam five years ago.
Today, Aug. 2, the BC Coroners Service said the hearing involving the death of Melvin Viggo Gary Erickson will take place on Oct. 1, 2024, at the Burnaby Coroners’ Court under Susan Barth.
Public inquiries are mandatory for deaths that happen while someone is detained by or in the custody of a peace officer.
According to an RCMP news release from December 2019, police were along the Mary Hill Bypass to enforce the speed limit when a man with blood on his face and clothes ran out of the bush and into traffic.
A nearby officer drove toward the man, who was trying to open the doors of passing motorists.
When he got inside the back of a stationary SUV, the officer pulled him out and — after being pushed back and falling — placed the man under arrest on the ground, along with two other officers.
The man then became “unresponsive,” the RCMP E-Division statement reads.
Officers attempted to revive the man; however, he was later pronounced dead by the paramedics on scene.
Police say the man, who had multiple warrants, was the same suspect they had tried to arrest earlier in the day at a Port Coquitlam home but fled as officers arrived.
IIOBC action
The death happened on Dec. 22, 2019, at around 5:30 p.m.
Police closed the bypass from Shaughnessy Street to Pitt River Road for five hours to investigate the incident, which was also probed by the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIOBC) — an independent civilian oversight agency of BC police.
In its report published in June 2020, the IIOBC cited the autopsy report noting the man’s previous health conditions and listed his cause of death as polysubstance toxicity from cocaine and methadone use. He also had high blood pressure, plaque build-up in his arteries and an enlarged heart.
“It is important to note that the cause of death was not linked to any improper force used on [the man] that may have created a physical impediment on his ability to breath,” wrote IIOBC director Ron MacDonald in his report while dismissing criminal charges against the responding Coquitlam Mounties.
