The Thunder Bay, Ont., police officer who led the flawed investigation into Ojibway man Stacey DeBungee’s death in 2015 will be demoted one rank for 18 months and must take mandatory Indigenous cultural competency training.
On Friday, Greg Walton, the officer who presided over the misconduct hearing, ruled Staff Sgt. Shawn Harrison of the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) would be demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant for 18 months, and will have to attend cultural competency training within three months. If at the end of that time his disciplinary record remains clear, he would be returned to the rank of staff sergeant.
“Unprofessionalism, negligence and bias failed Stacey DeBungee,” Walton read from his decision, which he delivered virtually.
Last summer, Harrison was found guilty of one count of neglect of duty and one count of discreditable conduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act relating to the death investigation. A second officer, Sgt. Shawn Whipple, faced the same charges, but was found not guilty.
Harrison was a detective at the time of the investigation, but had since been promoted to staff sergeant. At the start of the hearing, he pleaded guilty to the neglect of duty charge.
DeBungee, 41, from Rainy River First Nation in northwestern Ontario, died in October 2015. His body was found in the McIntyre River in Thunder Bay on Oct. 19.
Within three hours of the discovery of DeBungee’s body, police had issued a news release that said the initial investigation did not indicate the case was a suspicious death, even though the body had yet to be positively identified and an autopsy had not yet been conducted.
A second news release was issued the next day, deeming the death to be “non-criminal.”
Family wanted officer fired
The family hired a private investigator, who found DeBungee’s debit card was used after his death, and interviewed witnesses who were not part of the police investigation. Officers refused to meet with the investigator.
A complaint was filed to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), which reviewed the initial Thunder Bay police investigation and released a report in 2018 outlining its deficiencies.
Though the disciplinary charges against Harrison are serious, Walton said, he does not believe that it should cost him his job and he can still be effective as a Thunder Bay police officer.
The prosecution, representing the TBPS, had requested a two-year demotion, from staff sergeant to constable for the first year, and then after that, a promotion to sergeant before becoming staff sergeant again.
Lawyers representing DeBungee’s family argued Harrison should be fired from the police service.
Harrison’s defence lawyers asked for a demotion of one rank for three to six months.
This wraps up a process that has taken seven years since DeBungee’s death and involved a multi-year legal dispute, which involved the CBC, over whether the disciplinary hearings this summer would be open to the public.
The case eventually made its way before the Ontario Court of Appeal, which led to an adjudicator ruling that the hearing not be closed to the public.
