The report that cleared Halifax police in the death of Blaine Provo in 2006 is a coverup, the brother of the dead man said yesterday.
“What came out was the exact same thing that they told us when we first went down there, which questions how far did they investigate into it?” said Robert Provo from his Toronto home. “Even if they did find anything, no one believes they’d come out with it.”
Blaine Provo died in police custody on December 1, 2006. Amherst police investigated the death because it had occurred with HRP. The report released yesterday said Provo resisted arrest for a break-and-enter. He was placed in a police van in front of 85 Albro Lake Rd. in Dartmouth. Police were talking to him when he went into medical distress and died. The report said the cause of death was cocaine intoxication and “the manner of the death was accidental.”
Robert Provo called that “ridiculous. People are not that stupid.” He noted his brother had used drugs before, and “just happened to die the night he became involved with the police?”
In 2006, it was reported that Blaine Provo was assaulted in an apartment on Albro Lake Road and fled to No. 85 to get help. The residents thought he was trying to break in and called police, leading to his death in custody.
Provo plans to sue HRP over the death and to “shine a light on the problem.”
“If we let it go, it’ll keep on happening,” he said. “It’s not a matter of colour, it’s protection of everybody. All cultures have to look at this and say ‘No, we’re not letting that happen.’”
“We’re beyond frustration,” he added, saying the report had contributed to the rift between the black community and the police.
