Watch above: A Sherwood Park family wants answers after their loved one fell unconscious while in police custody and later died. Shallima Maharaj reports.
EDMONTON – A man with a rare disorder died in hospital after what police describe as a medical episode while in custody on Wednesday.
Police say the man was arrested for a disturbance outside a medical centre near 122 Avenue and 97 Street.
“We responded in respect to an individual who was acting somewhat aggressively towards staff at that location,” said EPS inspector-duty officer Regan James.
“He was pointed out as that aggressive male – yelling, screaming, that sort of thing… However, there was no confrontation whatsoever with police, no decisions had to be made as to use-of-force.
“The gentleman was very non-combative with us.”
“As a result, he was essentially asked into handcuffs, done so, and placed in the van,” said James.
“In the time that we took – approximately 15 minutes – to interview the staff at that medical clinic, we returned back to our vehicle and found the gentleman in medical distress.”
Police called EMS and started CPR.
The man – who family has identified as Trevor Proudman, 32 – was taken to hospital and placed on life support, but died around 10 a.m. the next morning.
His mother, Maureen Warren, wants answers about her son’s death.
She arrived at the medical centre after Proudman had been handcuffed and put in the police van.
She said police told her no charges were being laid and they could release Proudman into her care.
“We thought ‘why is this taking so long?’ And then the paddy wagon, the back of it, was going up and down, up and down… we walked around the corner and I saw Trevor spread out and they were doing chest compressions on him, his face was blueish.
“I lost it at that point.”
Proudman was put on life support overnight at the hospital, but Warren said staff were having a hard time getting his blood pressure up.
“The doctor came in and said to me that he has been brain damaged and his blood pressure just kept going down,” Warren recalled, her voice breaking.
“He said ‘there’s no point carrying on with it,’ so I let him go.”
Now, she wants to know what led up to her son’s death.
“It never should have happened. He shouldn’t have died.”
“I’m shocked. I’m angry.”
Proudman was diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome at the age of three.
Prader-Willi Syndrome is a rare disorder that results in a number of physical, mental and behavioural issues. A key feature is a constant sense of hunger. People with Prader-Willi Syndrome never feel full and therefore may have trouble controlling their weight.
“He was four-foot-eleven,” said Warren. “He was quite overweight, quite round.”
“I’m thinking when they pulled his hands behind his back to handcuff him, he was having a hard time breathing… I think he stopped breathing.”
“I don’t see why they had to handcuff him,” she said. “He was peaceful.”
Warren called police in the hopes of getting more information on the case.
“I said I wanted copies of all the police records. They told me I would have to FOIP them.”
“I’m Trevor’s legal guardian,” she added.
Warren said her son had been arrested before; in two cases it was for kicking a vehicle.
The Edmonton Police Service will review the incident.
“There is an oversight investigation as to the occurrence and what we could do differently or better or not differently,” said James.
James said the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team will review Edmonton police’s investigation results.
Warren will wait for the autopsy on her son as well as the results of any and all investigations.
“I’m not sure what happened in there,” she said. “I want to find out.”
“He never should have died like that.”
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