City cop won’t be charged in woman’s injury
Subject of wellness check was seriously hurt at Fredericton hospital after police detained her under Mental Health Act, prompting investigation by regional police watchdog agency
A Fredericton police officer won’t face a criminal charge stemming from an injury to a woman this spring when police carried out a wellness check on her, a police watchdog agency reported Wednesday.
The Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) - a Nova Scotia-based agency that investigates police-involved incidents of injury and death in that province and in New Brunswick - issued its report Wednesday on an April 4 incident in Fredericton.
A woman sustained a serious injury during contact with Fredericton Police Force (FPF) officers April 4 during a wellness check, and SiRT launched an investigation into the incident a week later to determine if there was any criminality to the police conduct.
SiRT issued a news release Wednesday advising it had completed its investigation.
“On April 4, 2025, officers with FPF were dispatched to the residence of an adult woman to conduct a wellness check. While at the residence officers detained the woman under the New Brunswick Mental Health Act and transported her to hospital,” the release said.
“The woman was handcuffed and was not co-operative with police. Due to the woman’s behaviour at the hospital, staff asked that she be taken into a secure room. While being escorted by an officer the woman resisted and fell and hit her face on the concrete floor, sustaining a broken jaw.”
SiRT director Erin Nauss issued her report Wednesday, finding there weren’t reasonable grounds to suspect a Fredericton police officer committed a crime when the woman sustained the injury.
Crisis call from addiction services
Her full report detailed how police came into contact with the woman in the first place, as well as statements obtained from her, the officer and other witnesses.
She noted that what set things in motion was a call from a health-care worker about the woman’s precarious personal circumstances.
“On April 4, 2025, Fredericton Police Force received a call from a Horizon Health addiction services employee, requesting they conduct a wellness check on the AP (affected party) at her home,” the report stated.
“FPF were advised that the AP had contacted Horizon Heath saying she was involved in a domestic-violence incident and feared for her safety. A wellness check was requested as the AP made suicidal statements.”
The woman later told investigators that she’d called addiction services to check on the availability of a bed in its detox unit.
“She had a lengthy conversation with the unit and explained she did not need to attend a detox program, but rather, she was looking to leave an abusive situation in her home and needed a place to stay,” the report said, referring to her statement to SiRT investigators.
“She stated she was not using alcohol that day but had taken prescription medication. She stated she did not express any suicidal thoughts on this call.”
However, she also acknowledged that her memory might have been affected by the meds.
Three FPF officers were dispatched to her home, and she wasn’t receptive to their presence and wasn’t able to communicate with them clearly.
“The AP stated she asked the officers to leave the apartment, and they would not leave. She opened the door and aggressively said, ‘Get out,’ which is when the officers detained her and placed her in handcuffs,” the report said.
“She stated she wanted them to leave because she assumed her ex-husband had called the police to attend her place.”
Nauss’ report indicates that upon being taken to hospital, the woman said she was reluctant to go into a seclusion room for fear of being “trapped for hours,” noting that its bright lights were triggering for her.
“She recalled being handcuffed, and two officers holding her by the shoulders (one on each side), guiding her into the room. The AP said she was scuffing her feet, trying to stop herself from going into the room,” the report states, referring to the woman’s statement to SiRT.
“The AP said the officers ‘had enough’ and they pushed her forward aggressively and she bellyflopped on the floor. When she hit the floor, she was face down and saw blood everywhere. She started screaming that the officers broke her face and was spitting her teeth out.”
Treatment in emergency department
She said she was taken to the emergency department, treated and taken for an X-ray.
“The AP stated the police officers stayed at the hospital with her until she was discharged, and during this time she was asking for a female officer,” the report says.
“She stated that an officer was smirking at her and making comments such as ‘you shouldn’t be running your mouth.’”
Her medical records showed she sustained a laceration to her chin that required stitches, as well as chipped teeth.
“The X-ray confirmed a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) fracture,” it said. “The AP was discharged from hospital that day but referred to a maxillofacial surgeon.”
An emergency-room nurse supervisor told SiRT that the woman was quite vocal when brought to the hospital.
“Upon the AP’s arrival, she was making several statements of self-harm and suicide,” the report said.
“[The nurse supervisor] stated the AP was very vocal, and it sounded like an altercation was happening with police. A decision was made to bring the AP to the seclusion room.”
It was in that room that she sustained her injuries.
According to the investigation, the woman gave the nurse supervisor a different version of events.
“During triage, the AP told [the supervisor] that while she was being brought into the seclusion room, she tripped and fell forward with her hands cuffed behind her back,” the report says.
“When she fell forward, she was at the entrance of the seclusion room, advanced forward by police and dragged into the room.”
After treatment, she was returned to a quiet waiting room, it notes, but became agitated with police again and was returned to the seclusion room before a psychiatric nurse assumed carriage of her treatment.
Another emergency-room nurse who attended to the woman in the seclusion right after her fall told investigators she was worked up and yelling.
“There was blood on the floor, and the AP was erratic and screaming she had a broken jaw and teeth,” that nurse told investigators, according to the report.
“The AP kept saying, ‘My husband beat me up, I called 911, and now I have been assaulted by the Fredericton police.’”
A hospital security officer offered another perspective, suggesting the woman caused her own injuries by resisting officers. He told SiRT that the woman should probably go into the seclusion room, given her agitation, and he led the police with the handcuffed patient to that room.
“[The security guard] unlocked the door and stepped inside. At that point the AP stated, ‘I am not going in there.’ [The guard] stated the AP had been walking along normally with the officer, but when the door was opened, she put her feet together and resisted entering the room,” the report says.
“[A police] officer was guiding her into the room. [The security officer] stated that when the AP slammed her feet to the floor, the officer lost control of her, and she went face first onto the floor. The AP was handcuffed, so had no control to break the fall.”
The guard indicated the woman tripped herself and that the police officer didn’t push her.
The witness police officer told SiRT his colleague tried to prevent the woman from falling.
“He stated she was trying to go ‘dead weight’ so they couldn’t get her into the room,” the report states.
Video evidence reviewed
The subject officer (SO), who was the target of the misconduct the woman alleged, didn’t co-operate with the SiRT investigation.
“The SO did not provide his notes or reports to SiRT and did not consent to being interviewed,” the report said.
“The SO is under no legal obligation to provide SiRT with a statement or his notes/reports for the purposes of the investigation.”
Video footage from the hospital didn’t show the officer pushing the woman in any way, it said, and body-cam footage didn’t capture his actions.
Nauss wrote that the Fredericton police officers involved acted appropriately in the circumstances when dealing with the woman.
“The officers were in the lawful execution of their duties when they detained the AP under the Mental Health Act. The officers had information that the AP had made suicidal comments, and they attended her apartment to conduct a wellness check,” she wrote.
“While at the apartment, the officers called the Mobile Crisis Unit to attend. However, before they arrived, the AP started to barricade herself in a room, which resulted in the officers detaining her and transporting her to hospital.”
The SiRT director notes that while the woman’s injuries were unfortunate, she couldn’t conclude the subject officer’s actions amounted to criminal conduct.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.