Manitoba RCMP arrested this man for public intoxication. Security video shows why he didn't survive the night

Jeremy Ettawakapow waited years to learn what happened the night his father died in RCMP custody. Following a five-day inquest last month, he knows the tragedy could have been prevented.

"He could have had another day. He could have another month, could have another year.… That's something that I'm very heartbroken about," he said on June 21, the last day of the inquest.

Jeremy Ettawakapow sat through five days of testimony, during which he learned what happened to his father, John Ettawakapow, in his final moments after he was arrested for public intoxication in the northern Manitoba town of The Pas. 

The inquest is where Jeremy first watched security video from Oct. 5, 2019 — the night of John Ettawakapow's arrest — which shows his father dragged into the cell by two RCMP officers and left on the floor with two other inmates, just after 7 p.m.

The video shows about an hour later, another inmate later rolled over and accidentally placed his leg on his father's neck, where it remained for 40 minutes. 

John Ettawakapow struggled to remove it himself, the video shows, but no one entered the cell until hours later.

WATCH | Security video from RCMP cell (WARNING: video is disturbing): 

CBC obtained a copy of the video through the courts, but with restrictions imposed by provincial court Judge Brian Colli, who presided over the inquest. CBC cannot show the RCMP officers bringing Ettawakapow into the cell, or the paramedics working on him after he was found unresponsive, in order to protect their privacy.

RCMP policy says a person in custody must be physically checked on every 15 minutes — which several RCMP officers admitted at the inquest they didn't know. 

The only way to look into Ettawakapow's cell is to physically open the window — something the video shows didn't happen until 1:30 a.m.

That was when the RCMP watch commander opened the cell, finding Ettawakapow unresponsive. He began administering CPR, but too late for Ettawakapow, who was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Howard Morton, who served as the director of the Ontario's Special Investigations Unit — the province's police watchdog agency — from 1992 to 1995, watched the video and said it showed how poorly police can treat intoxicated people. 

"It's just inhumane. We have to treat all of us better, and particularly if you have a major, major health issue like alcohol addiction," he told CBC.

"We have to be more humane in the way we treat them."