A Coroners inquest has ruled the 2015 death of Smithers man arrested by RCMP as accidental.
Presiding Coroner Susan Barth found that 53-year-old Jacobus Jonker’s immediate cause of death was external pressure to his head and neck.
The inquest heard that police were called to his home February 14th after his daughter called to say he was drunk and holding a gun.
Testimony indicated that RCMP pepper sprayed Jonker when he rushed at a responding officer.
A struggle between Jonker and two officers broke out later at the Smithers detachment which saw Jonker lose consciousness.
Despite attempts to revive him at the detachment and in hospital, Jonker never regained consciousness and was removed from life support a week later.
The Coroners jury made five recommendations in the case, including that RCMP review handcuff removal procedure with respect to prisoner booking, consider a standard pepper spray decontamination procedure in secure area, and consider using the incident as a case study at RCMP Crisis Intervention and De-Escalation (CID) training.
