The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has been investigating Calgary police officers in relation to the death of a teen in 2014.
The father of Colton Crowshoe, 18, reported on July 6, 2014 that his son had gone missing.
A missing person investigation was launched and the body of Crowshoe was found in a water retention pond in Calgary on July 24, 2014. His death was deemed to be a homicide and the case has not yet been solved.
An investigation of how police handled the case was launched by ASIRT due to complaints by Crowshoe’s family members that police has failed to investigate the case properly due to racial bias and profiling.
It was alleged at the time that Crowshoe told family members that he had previously been assaulted by police officers and that he had minor injuries on his face.
ASIRT concluded that there was no racial profiling, but did say that police bungled the case.
“CPS has not been cleared of wrongdoing. CPS’ investigation into Colton Crowshoe’s missing person complaint was not done properly,” said Susan Hughson, Executive Director, ASIRT. “There is evidence of an assault on Colton Crowshoe as he told his family and as his family told us. It should not be interpreted that the fact that there will not be a charge amounts to clearing the officer of wrongdoing.”
ASIRT confirmed that the injuries to Crowshoe’s face likely happened when he was put in a van to be taken to arrest processing, but that minimal force was used and the officers were not charged.
ASIRT reviewed 28 unrelated missing person cases and found protocols were not uniformly or consistently followed in several cases, regardless of whether the subject was indigenous or white, and that there were many assumptions, errors, and oversights made in many of the investigations regardless of race.
-with files from Kathy Le
