(BRENDAN KERGIN/FILE PHOTO / iNFOnews.ca)

B.C.'s police watchdog won't be recommending charges after a negligent Kamloops RCMP officer failed to check on what turned out to be an overdose.

A citizen approached the officer who was filling up his police cruiser at a nearby gas station and let them know about their concerns about two men under the influence of substances and asked the officer to check on them, according to an Independent Investigations Office of B.C. report released today, Feb. 13. The officer said he would check on them but instead drove away in the opposite direction.

Paramedics arrived at the North Shore bus loop where they tried to revive one of the men for thirty minutes. He died of a fentanyl overdose.

The independent investigations office found there was a "measure of negligence" on the officer's part but there wasn't enough evidence to say whether that negligence caused the man's death.

"There is no eyewitness or expert medical evidence to assist in a determination of when he died, or at what time medical intervention might have saved his life. That means there is no way to know whether (the officer's) failure to follow up on (the civilian's) report did or did not contribute to his death," chief civilian director of the watchdog agency, Ronald J. MacDonald, said in his report.

The civilian approached the officer at the gas station at around 5:30 p.m., June 28, 2022, after spotting two men at the bus loop under a blanket. They appeared to be unconscious but it's not clear whether he checked if either were still alive.

The civilian said the officer “assured me that he would go to the bus loop and check on the two individuals," according to the report. He then watched the officer drive away from the bus loop minutes later.

Investigators checked video footage from passing buses, which showed the man slumped over in the same position from 5 p.m. until paramedics arrived two hours later.

"No one appears to be taking any notice," the report said.

Around 7 p.m., another civilian checked on him. They started giving him first aid and called 911, but they felt he had been dead "for some time" before paramedics showed up.

No one is named in the report but the first civilian worked in the area regularly.

The report didn't explain where the officer went or whether he was responding to another call. The officer didn't give a statement to the independent investigations office and the report noted he's not compelled to do so.

The report also didn't mention what happened with the other man under the blanket or whether he was revived.

"While it can be said that (the officer) should have followed up on (the civilian's) report, I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment and therefore the matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges," MacDonald said in the report.

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