Man’s death at Veld festival had nothing to do with police: SIU

The province’s police watchdog has concluded that the death of a Toronto man at the Veld Music Festival last month had nothing to do with an officer.

The Special Investigations Unit was called in to investigate the death of the 22-year-old man who attended the event at Downsview Park on Aug. 4.

A 20-year-old woman also died, while another 13 were sickened after ingesting party drugs at the two-day music festival.

On Thursday, the watchdog said in a release the man went into medical distress and was assisted by two men to a nearby emergency medical area. He began to convulse and paramedics were unable to treat him as he was flailing violently.

A Toronto officer handcuffed his hands to the side rails of a stretcher to allow paramedics to treat him. The victim went into cardiac arrest and died on the way to the hospital.

“The evidence indicates the man’s death had nothing to do with the conduct of the police, who had a very brief interaction with him on that day,” the SIU stated. “Rather his death resulted from a combination of myocardial infarction and renal failure brought about by the ingestion of a combination of illicit drugs.”

While the SIU case is now closed, there is still a homicide investigation by Toronto police into the two deaths.

 

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