Allison Cross (Vancouver Sun) - A man is dead after choking on a golfball-sized bag of crack-cocaine as Surrey RCMP tried to arrest him, making him the third person to die in their custody in the past six weeks.
Brandon Whitelaw, 22, was riding in a car with another man at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when RCMP drug section members pulled them over for minor traffic infractions, said Insp. Garry Begg.
The two men had just left a well-known crack house near Ravine Road that was under police surveillance, he said.
Police saw evidence of drugs in the car, removed the men from the vehicle and arrested them near the corner of 106th Avenue and 132nd Street.
“Shortly after they came into contact with the two occupants . . . they realized that one of the occupants was choking,” Begg said on Friday. “They rendered what assistance they could . . . while they called an ambulance.”
Whitelaw was taken to Surrey Memorial Hospital, where he died despite further efforts to revive him.
Begg said the plastic bag containing about 11 rocks of crack-cocaine was pulled intact from Whitelaw’s throat, but an autopsy that was scheduled for Friday will determine the exact cause of his death.
“In general terms, it’s very common for people who are transporting drugs to store them in their mouth when police arrive,” Begg said.
The other man in the car wasn’t charged.
Ryan Alexander Wagemans, 24, died on July 1 after transit security removed him from a bus near the Newton loop for causing trouble. After police arrived, the Langley man became combative and became medically distressed. He died in hospital.
Another Surrey man died in hospital on June 19 after fighting with an RCMP officer two days earlier on Crescent Road.
David James Stitt, 46, approached the officer holding a stick, but she subdued him with pepper spray and a baton.
Stitt collapsed after he was taken into a police cruiser; he received CPR.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken over the most recent case, which is subject to further scrutiny from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP and an RCMP officer independent of the Surrey detachment.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Deepthroat // Aug 6, 2008 at 15:50
The headline gives the wrong impression of the situation. The cops lost another one is what it says. Instead it should read person dies while choking on illegal drugs.
2 J-rebel // Aug 14, 2008 at 19:08
How is this the Police’s fault? He died while trying to conceal evidence of an offence. Live by the sword……. Sad his life turned out this way but in reality it is one less criminal trying to hook children on drugs.
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