A 25-year-old inmate at Surrey Pretrial jail died early Thursday after an altercation with his roommate the night before.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now in charge of the case.
IHIT media officer, Cpl. Meghan Foster, said she won’t release the name of the victim even though his family has been notified about the tragedy.
“At this time, releasing the name of the victim does not further our investigation. Should the circumstances of the investigation change and require the release of the victim’s name, it will be done so at that time,” Foster said.
Surrey RCMP was called just after 7:30 p.m. Wednesday about “an altercation between two cell mates at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre,” she said.
Foster said correctional officers intervened and separated the victim from his 22-year-old cellmate.
“The victim was transported to hospital as he sustained extensive injuries during the altercation. Despite all medical efforts, the 25-year-old male victim succumbed to his injuries just before 1:30 a.m.,” she said. “IHIT has consulted with Crown Counsel regarding charges, but homicide-related charges have not yet been approved.”
There have been rising violence levels in provincial jails over the last few years. B.C. government statistics provided to The Vancouver Sun last fall showed 893 incidents of prisoner violence in 2014 and already 953 by the end of September 2015. More than 90 per cent of the attacks were by inmates on other inmates, with the remaining attacks by inmates against staff.
The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, which represents guards in the province’s jails, has repeatedly blamed the increasing violence on a combination of overcrowding and more gang inmates being locked up awaiting trial.
Last April, Neil Leslie died in hospital after he was beaten in a living unit at North Fraser Pretrial Centre. In February, Adam Palsson, 27, was beaten to death at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre where he was serving a 13-month sentence for stealing a car and driving dangerously.
There have also been suicides and fatal overdoses among B.C. Corrections inmates this year, including the death last month of David Singh Tucker, the suspect in several University of B.C. sex assaults. He also died in Surrey pretrial.
Foster said both the victim in the latest case and his roommate were awaiting “court appearances on separate matters. Neither of the males knew each other prior to their incarceration.”
Homicide investigators are working with the Surrey RCMP, the forensic identification team, pretrial staff and the B.C. Coroners Service “to help piece together the factors that led up to the altercation, and subsequent death of the male victim,” Foster said.
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