Manitoba’s police watchdog has concluded that Thompson RCMP officers’ actions or inactions did not play a role in the death of a 44-year-old woman who died in one of the detachment’s drunk tanks on Feb. 1, 2020.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU), which investigates serious incidents involving on- and off-duty police officers in the province, said in its investigation report released Aug. 26 that the woman’s cause of death was a combination of acute alcohol intoxication and a subdural hematoma – a collection of blood outside the brain, usually caused by a head injury.