February 22, 2022
On February 20th, Latjor Tuel, a Black man in a mental health crisis, was shot and killed by a Calgary Police officer. Latjor was described by his family, friends, and community as a generous and kind person. Before arriving in Canada some 20 years ago, he was a child soldier and suffered chronic PTSD. Despite that, he worked hard like many immigrants to provide for his family in Canada and back home in Sudan. His death is a great loss to the community.
ActionDignity expresses its deepest condolences to and stand in solidarity with Latjor’s family, friends and the Sudanese community. This incident has made many Black and racialized people in our city feel unsafe.
In 2020, we stood in solidarity with George Floyd and Breanna Taylor against police brutality. As we celebrate Black History Month it is ironic and disconcerting that is happening now, in our backyard. We cannot ignore or be silent about this.
According to CBC research findings in 2018, 70% of the people who have died in police related shootings since 2000 struggled with mental health issues or substance abuse or both. Of this, 50% are Indigenous young men and 17% are young Black men. Crisis Intervention experts have said repeatedly that police should not be involved when responding to a mental health crisis.
This is unacceptable. In as much as we understand the complexity in policing, we are questioning the reasons behind the use of lethal force in someone who is obviously in need of help. We believe that the police officers involved should be held accountable for that action and demand full transparency and accountability.
In the interest of transparency, we demand responses to the following questions:
- Why is PACT (Police and Crisis Team) not involved? PACT responds to situations involving individuals experiencing mental health, addictions, or psycho-social crisis.
- Why did the police show up in a mental health intervention with weapons and police dog?
On accountability, what did the police do and save his life? Why did they leave him lying on the road for 8 hours?
As ActionDignity seeks a more comprehensive, genuine change in systems and institutions such as the police service, we will continue to work in the interim, on measures holding institutions and systems accountable for their unjust actions against racialized community members.
As a result, ActionDignity is putting a pause to its system change work with the Calgary Police to grieve with the family and communities and reflect on our actions. We will pay attention to the responses to inform our work moving forward.
We are currently working with family and community on the different supports we can provide during this difficult time.
In solidarity,
ActionDignity