Nova Scotia’s police watchdog has cleared three Halifax Regional Police officers in the death of a 39-year-old woman in December.
Three officers responded to an apartment building on Tower Road on Dec. 29 after receiving a call from a woman who said her friend had threatened to hurt herself.
She told police that she had been talking to her friend over the phone, and that she said she may take her own life because she believed she was being threatened by gangsters and was being controlled by a suitcase.
According to a statement from the Serious Incident Response Team, the police responded to the woman’s apartment but she wouldn’t open the door to let them in.
SIRT says another female occupant went to open the door and, before she opened it, she spotted the woman sitting on the floor with a knife to her throat, threatening to harm herself.
As she opened the door, the woman began to stab herself in the neck, according to SIRT’s statement.
The woman refused to drop the knife and continued to cut herself. SIRT says the officers tried to use a Taser and baton to stop her, but were unsuccessful. They eventually managed to pull her arm from her neck and she was taken to hospital.
However, the woman died from her injuries.
The incident was referred to SIRT, which has found that the officers were justified in entering the apartment in an effort to protect the woman. SIRT also says the officers used appropriate force to stop the woman from injuring herself and there are no grounds to lay charges.
