Coroner identifies elderly victim of Agassiz care home confrontation

AGASSIZ, B.C. – An 88-year-old man has been identified as the senior citizen who died in Agassiz, B.C., following a confrontation with RCMP.

The BC Coroners Service says Armand Vaugeois was a resident of Cheam Village, an independent living seniors’ home in Agassiz, about 100 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Vaugeois went into medical distress and died following an early-morning confrontation at the seniors’ home on Sept. 23.

Probes of the case are underway by the coroners service and the Independent Investigations Office, the civilian agency that examines all police-involved deaths or injuries in B.C.

The coroners service says Vaugeois was slightly hurt just before he died, but the injury was very minor and its role in the man’s death is still being investigated.

The IIO has said Mounties responded to a report of a knife-wielding man who suffered a self-inflicted injury, but died before he was taken to hospital.