Investigation clears police of man’s death after forcible removal from a property in Bexleyheath
james@slpmedia.co.uk
Daniel Bastien, 33, was taken ill after officers used force to remove him from a property in Bexleyheath on September 17, 2018 following reports of an attempted burglary.
Mr Bastien was handcuffed and put on his side in a police van while being watched by officers.
He had appeared disorientated and uncommunicative, and his condition soon deteriorated.
He was then removed from the van, had his handcuffs taken off and the officers treated him, giving him CPR until paramedics arrived and then took him to hospital, where he died.
A post-mortem showed Mr Bastien had extremely high levels of drugs in his system at the time of his death.
An inquest held in Croydon by the South London Coroner on December 6 this year found that Mr Bastien died of a drug-related overdose.
An Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation found that the officers followed policies and procedures and there was no indication any officer had done
anything wrong.
A statement from the IOPC said: “IOPC investigators attended the scene of the incident, and took witness statements from police officers and members of the public.
“Body worn camera footage from officers, which captured the entire incident, was reviewed and analysed in detail.
“Officers did everything they could to save him.”
IOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: “Police officers have a really difficult role to perform and this case sadly highlights the challenges faced on the ground.
“The officers involved in this incident did all they could to safeguard Mr Bastien and acted with complete professionalism.
“Our investigation found that officers made every effort to give Mr Bastien emergency treatment and that they had no option but to use reasonable force to remove him from a property where there were reports of an attempted burglary.
“Very sadly, Mr Bastien died later in hospital as a result of a drug overdose.”
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