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Inquest ordered into man's death

Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 01/02) - The chief coroner's office is calling for an inquest into the death of a man who fell unconscious in the RCMP drunk tank and never woke up.

Archie Tsetta died on July 18. Chief coroner Percy Kinney said Tsetta was picked up by the RCMP for public intoxication in June.

"Early the next morning he was found to be unresponsive, was taken to Stanton, medevaced to Edmonton, and spent five weeks down there going through medical procedures," said Kinney.

After five weeks of testing Tsetta was sent back to Stanton Territorial Hospital where he died the following day. Kinney said he does not know if he ever regained consciousness in Edmonton. The cause of death is believed to be cerebral hemorrhage as a result of a fall or blow to the head. Kinney said the actual cause of death will not be known until testimony from a pathologist is heard at the inquest. A date for an inquest has not been set.

Kinney said one of the issues the inquest will address is the "revolving door" experienced by alcoholics living in Yellowknife.

"Because of some of the lack of services they get intoxicated, they get picked up, they get put in the drunk tank, they get let out the next morning, they go out, they get intoxicated, they get picked up, they get brought in -- it was turned into a police problem," said Kinney.

He said the "revolving door" dilemma should not be looked upon by society as an RCMP problem, as it commonly has been in the North.

"We're not doing anything about the core of the problem. We're doing something about being drunk on the street but we're not doing anything about why they are drunk on the street," said Kinney.