Last week saw the start of an inquiry in Nova Scotia probing the in-custody death of Howard Hyde. Hyde died shortly after he was Tasered by Special Constable Greg McCormick of the Halifax Regional Police in November, 2007.  In a turn resembling the Dziekanski inquiry, evidence has challenged officers’ accounts of events.

Constable Jonathan Edwards has recanted statements after contradictory evidence surfaced.   Edwards had previously stated that a booking officer warned Hyde he would be tasered if he failed to cooperate. No such warning appeared in a video recording of the incident.  Edwards also changed his story by admitting to using McCormick’s incident report to prepare his own after he had denied it.  Kevin MacDonald, who is representing Hyde’s family at the proceedings, noted that identical statements were used in both reports.

Special Constable Shannon Coombs has testified that Hyde became agitated after McCormick drew a 10 centimetre curved, serrated blade to cut a string on Hyde’s shorts.  This appears to contradict a previous statement by Coombs that she did not have a good view of what happened.  MacDonald suggested to Coombs that she could not see the device, to which she responded: “No, I did see him hold it, I did not see him use it”.

Howard Hyde, who suffered from schizophrenia and harboured a deep fear of the police, assaulted his common-law partner, Karen Ellet, after failing to take his medication.  While being booked at the police station, he attempted to flee.  Hyde was tasered during an ensuing altercation with police, and the entire incident was captured on camera.  Hyde was taken to hospital but was soon returned to police custody.  Howard Hyde died in his jail cell 30 hours after the initial incident.

Many have questioned whether psychiatric care would have been more appropriate than police detention. Ms. Ellet has stated that Hyde “was treated as a prisoner, not as a mental-health patient.” Nova Scotia’s medical examiner has  ruled Hyde’s death was the result of “excited delirium”, a term with much controversy in the health profession as it only appears as a cause of death in police-involved deaths and it is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Watch the inquiry live.

Tags: Death In Custody, RCMP, Taser

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