By James Peters

Pivot Legal Society observes Setah inquest

Apr 13, 2016 | 1:28 PM

KAMLOOPS — The coroners’ inquest into the death of 18 year old Jacob George Setah is into its third day.

Setah is the young man who died in a fall from the Royal Inland Hospital parkade in 2014, shortly after he escaped from the hospital’s psychiatric ward.

RCMP officers had assisted in trying to return the man to the ward, and had used a taser on him in the process.

That action has the Pivot Legal Society interested in this inquest, and Pivot’s Doug King says even if the officer’s actions didn’t cause Setah’s decision to jump, it wasn’t the right move.

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“Arguably, the intention of the officer wasn’t to do any harm to him other than what the taser would have done,” said King. “His ultimate goal was to try to prevent Mr. Setah from jumping off the building. It’s a decision that I think was very ill-informed, it was unwise, and obviously it had severe consequences.”

The Independent Investigations’ Office cleared the officer of wrongdoing, but King says the officer certainly wasn’t blameless, and he believes the matter should have been sent to the Crown for review.

“I think it really raises questions about what our expectations are when you have an officer like this engaging in contact that I would says is outside of the norm,” said King.

“We would like to see a bit more thorough investigation, and at the very least the Crown should have had a look at it.”