Editor’s note: a previous version of this article inaccurately described police officer actions prior to Bagot’s death. This article has been updated and republished to reflect the change. Global News regrets the error.
A provincial inquest into the deaths of five men who died in police custody continues with a look into the final hours of Michael Bagot.
Asha Bagot spoke of her husband, depicting a happy life before he died in the custody of the Winnipeg Police Service in May 2019.
She told the inquest about the pain she and her family have suffered since his death.
“We have lost a wonderful, loving, husband, father, son, and friend. And we as a family, we are traumatized by the way he died.”
Bagot described not knowing how to answer her now five-year-old son when he asks what happened to his father, and how he died.
On Thursday, the inquest also heard from three members of the Winnipeg Police Service who were at the scene that day responding to multiple calls of a man acting erratically.
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The officers testified that they arrived and found Michael Bagot in what they described as “a drug-induced psychosis.”
The inquest heard Bagot had climbed aboard a Winnipeg Transit bus, asking for help and speaking incoherently.
After a struggle on the bus, officers handcuffed him, restrained his ankles, and took him outside.
Shortly after, he lost consciousness.
Officers did not administer CPR to Bagot. Paramedics began CPR when they arrived, but Bagot died a few days later in hospital.
The inquest heard from CN Police Service Officer Dariusz Rozwadowski, who responded to the incident, and trains officers in use-of-force techniques.
He told the inquest the force used was appropriate, and realized it was a medical emergency as he noticed Bagot had stopped breathing.
But Bagot’s in-custody death has had a lasting impact on his family.
Asha Bagot said, “I would like to live in a society where I am not afraid of calling police for help.”
Judge Lindy Choy, who is overseeing the inquest, emphasized the intention is not to lay blame, but to find ways to do things differently going forward.
Choy asked the officers if there was anything they could have done differently in this situation, and all three said no.
All five of the deaths under examination happened during about a one-year period, stating in 2018. Each case was examined by Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit.
The inquest began with the case of Patrick Gagnon who died in October 2018. In addition to Bagot’s case, the inquest will review the deaths of Randy Cochrane, Sean Thompson and Matthew Fosseneuve.
The inquest continues Friday and will continue next week.
— with files from Global’s Iris Dyck
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