Charges stayed against B.C. RCMP officers in Dale Culver's death

A manslaughter case against two B.C. RCMP officers charged in the 2017 death of Dale Culver will not be moving forward, prosecutors announced Friday.

The Crown no longer believes there is a "reasonable prospect of conviction" against Const. Paul Ste-Marie and Const. Jean Francois Monette, so the manslaughter charges against the two Prince George RCMP officers will be stayed, the B.C. Prosecution Service said in a statement.

The decision came down to conflicting pathology reports on Culver's cause of death, with one finding he likely died of a heart attack linked to long-time methamphetamine use.

"Although his condition was exacerbated by the struggle with police, Mr. Culver was vulnerable to such a death at any moment," the BCPS statement reads, adding that there were “no fatal injuries” detected on his body.

Constables Ste-Marie and Monette will not be charged with lesser offences either.

Culver, who was from the Wet'suwet'en and Gitxsan nations, was arrested by Prince George RCMP on the night of July 18, 2017, during which he was pulled off his bicycle from behind, pepper-sprayed in the face, and punched or kicked several times by officers.

Grainy cellphone video captured the RCMP holding Culver down on the ground, but the officers had finished striking him by the time the recording started, prosecutors noted.

Culver collapsed and died 29 minutes later.

Frustration for the family

The deceased’s loved ones waited nearly six years for charges to be approved against police in February 2023, and expressed disappointment and outrage Friday after learning the manslaughter counts would be stayed.

“We have a system that says if you have a gun and a badge, you can kill any Indigenous person in any town in B.C. and not go to jail,” said Raven Culver, the deceased’s sister, in a statement.

“Our family has endured seven years of delays waiting for the day Dale’s killers would be held accountable. Today our worst fears were confirmed. There is no justice.”

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said Culver’s case had marked the first time officers in the province faced manslaughter charges in connection with the death of an Indigenous man. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the UBCIC, said the outcome of the case raises the risk that “racial tensions boil over.”

“Officers must be held accountable for each and every death of an Indigenous person at the hands of police,” Phillip wrote. “We are not dispensable. This has to stop.”

There have been 379 police-involved deaths across the province since Culver died, according to the UBCIC.

Review of pathologists’ findings

The pathologist who performed Culver's autopsy concluded he died from “abundant fibrin microthrombi” – tiny blood clots – caused by several factors that included methamphetamine toxicity but also blunt force trauma to his head.

Two other pathologists reviewed the findings and supported that conclusion, which led to the initial decision to approve manslaughter charges.

But Crown counsel said the pathologist who conducted the autopsy couldn’t explain how the head trauma, which was not found to be fatal on its own, contributed to the formation of the blood clots.

After being unable to answer those questions over a period of months, prosecutors consulted with a different pathologist – one with "extensive experience in police-involved death cases," according to the BCPS statement – who blamed Culver’s heart attack on the effects of methamphetamine use, exacerbated by his struggle with officers during his arrest.

That follow-up report pointed to an Australian study of methamphetamine-related deaths that found "contemporaneous strenuous activity" occurred in about 13 per cent of cases.

Mouth allegedly covered with pepper-sprayed glove

The officer who first attempted to arrest Culver was responding to a call about a "suspicious male” looking into cars, according to a summary of the evidence gathered by B.C.’s police watchdog.

While that suspect was described as being white and on foot, the caller indicated he might have had an associate on a bicycle.

The responding officer – whose name is not included in the BCPS statement – spotted Culver on a BMX bike and asked him to stop, then chased him down and pulled him to the ground when he allegedly refused. That prompted what the BCPS described as a “wrestling match” between the two.

Prosecutors said the officer got on top of Culver, elbowed his head and pepper-sprayed his face before Ste-Marie and Monette arrived.

Ste-Marie then punched Culver in the back of the head “at least once,” according to the summary. Witnesses said Monette struck Culver as well, but there were conflicting reports about whether he used his hands, feet or knees, and whether he hit Culver near his head or upper body.

One officer also recalled that Ste-Marie “sprayed pepper spray into the palm of his gloved hand” and proceeded to cover Culver’s mouth with that hand.

But prosecutors said an expert report on Ste-Marie and Monette’s use of force was “highly favourable” toward them overall, given that they were responding to a struggle involving a fellow officer.

“Mr. Culver was possibly moving, rolling, kicking his legs and pulling his arms away through much of his arrest,” the BCPS wrote. “If this was because he was resisting or being beaten is hard to say, but it was clear the officers had difficulty trying to control Mr. Culver.”

Culver, who suffered from asthma, told the officers he was struggling to breathe during his arrest. After police eventually placed him in handcuffs, they initially put him in the back of an RCMP cruiser, until he complained about his breathing again and was attended to by a paramedic at the scene.

Less than a minute later, he was dead.

Prosecutors said they considered charges of assault causing bodily harm and assault against Ste-Marie and Monette, but ultimately concluded those did not have a reasonable prospect of conviction either.