Quebec police watchdog investigates after man falls from fourth-floor window in police intervention at Hôpital de Hull

Quebec’s police watchdog is investigating the death of a person who fell from a fourth-floor window at l’Hopital de Hull early Tuesday.

According to the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), Gatineau police were called for assistance at about 1 a.m. in connection with a disoriented person.

A few minutes later, police found the individual in a laboratory where flammable products were stored.

The person then broke an exterior window on the fourth floor.

Police tried to make verbal contact with the person who was apparently perched on the window sill at the time.

Police also called an ambulance and firefighters on the ground, as well as medical personnel on the floor.

At about 1:27 a.m., police detected the subject had a lighter in his hand and a metal object.

The subject, who had moved away from the window, suddenly got up and returned to the windowsill, where he sat with his legs dangling outwards, and asked the police to leave.

At around 1:36 a.m., he fell from the window.

Paramedics attempted resuscitation, but the victim was pronounced dead.

The mission of the BEI is to shed “full light on the facts surrounding a police intervention.”

The organization automatically investigates all cases where “a person, other than a police officer on duty, dies, suffers a serious injury or is injured by a firearm used by a police officer during a police intervention or while in the custody of a police force.”

Five BEI investigators were assigned to the Hull case.

No further information is available at this time.