He saved a man from a suicide attempt. Then the police response left him baffled

Warning: This story contains disturbing details.

EDMONTON-On a frigid day last month, Thomas Lukaszuk was patching the wall above a large living room window in a rental property he owns when he noticed the man outside, pacing back and forth.

He looked older and a bit dishevelled, Lukaszuk recalled.

The man stopped and began looking up at a tree on Lukaszuk's property, which sits in the middle of the city by the river valley on a street lined with quiet houses. Lukaszuk looked up at the tree, too, wondering if maybe a cat was up there.

What happened next would shake Lukaszuk, who served as deputy premier and as a cabinet minister in Alberta's Progressive Conservative government for years. The disturbing moment made him reflect, he says, on how society deals with mental health, and how a paramilitary culture in policing may be leaving black marks on communities experiencing trauma.

The man walked up to the tree and lunged" at it, Lukaszuk said, scaled it and, about halfway up, pulled a rope out of his pocket.

The only way to describe my thinking was, holy f--- ," said Lukaszuk.

Lukaszuk bolted outside, dialing 911 as he looked at the man now fairly high up in the tree. He gave some basic information on the phone, threw it down, and started to climb. The man tried to hang himself.

At that moment, a contractor coming to do renovations with Lukaszuk drove up. Lukaszuk yelled at him to get a knife, and the contractor was able to throw Lukaszuk an X-Acto in time for him to cut the rope and take the man down.

At first, the man appeared unconscious. He was alive, and, when he came to, he was angry at Lukaszuk, telling him that people were out to get him.

This, in retrospect, is where the bizarre response of the police begins," Lukaszuk said.

Within roughly five minutes, the police arrived in force, according to Lukaszuk. Three or four cruisers, a black van and two or three SUVs. An ambulance followed.

These police officers come up to the tree and they look up, I'm there holding him, and they do nothing," Lukaszuk said. So I actually had to sort of talk the guy down, put your foot here, put your foot there.' "

The officers got the man to the ambulance and then talked among themselves. Within minutes, they're sort of about to leave," said Lukaszuk.

He approached one and asked if they needed to know if he had anything to tell them. The officer took a photo of Lukaszuk's driver's licence, and they all left.

I reflected on it, and I thought, first of all, you would think that they would want to approach me and that contractor and ask what happened," he said. Second of all, you would think that they would ask me, Are you OK?' You know, he could have hurt me physically. (Lukaszuk's hands had blood on them.) Emotionally, this was a very traumatic incident."

The police left; the rope remained in the tree for days.

Lukaszuk eventually did go back to take it down himself: It just didn't feel good going back there to take the rope down. But ... I'm going to have to go because yesterday I went to the house and neighbours are gathering around that tree," he said beforehand.

For the first two nights, I couldn't sleep. I actually had a nightmare about this. I can still see his face."

Lukaszuk was left mulling questions. The man told him his life was under threat and that people were out to get him - wouldn't the police want to know about that? Why not ask him if he was OK? Why not approach him to ask what happened? Why show up to a suicide attempt with so many officers and vehicles?

He wondered: What does this episode say about the culture in police services?

The Star sent Lukaszuk's version of events to the Edmonton Police Service. Cheryl Sheppard, a spokesperson, said the police received a report of a suicide attempt in progress at 2:24 p.m. in the Highlands area of Edmonton on Jan. 27.

The prompt actions of community members" who called police immediately ultimately saved the man's life," she added. The man was apprehended under Alberta's Mental Health Act and taken to the hospital.

While Sheppard said officers obtained witness information on scene," Lukaszuk maintains they did not do so with him, aside from his licence information. He called dispatch again after the police left to inform them about the man's words to him and the potential for further danger.

As for the number of police on scene: Since the suicide was actively in progress, several police vehicles responded due to the imminent threat to the individual's life," Sheppard said.

Experts the Star spoke to about the events wondered why social workers weren't dispatched alongside police.

The Edmonton Police Service has a partnership with Alberta Health Services that pairs officers with mental health workers on certain calls.

The Police and Crisis Response Teams - known as PACT teams - have been applauded in the past, especially when the spotlight in Canada was on police responding to mental wellness checks in 2020. That same year, when calls to defund the police were rampant across North America, Edmonton police announced they would hire more than a dozen social workers to accompany officers on calls as well.

Tom Engel, chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association's policing committee, said the absence of a PACT team during this incident needed to be questioned.

Even that PACT team, if it arrived and the medical emergency was over, still they could have talked to this guy," he said. They could have hung around and talked to Thomas and the other neighbours."

Likely, it points to the teams being stretched thin and under-resourced, added Engel.

According to Sheppard, the police spokesperson, a PACT team did not attend this call because the attempted suicide was already in progress."

PACT is contacted in a situation where there is a significant mental health concern and/or indication of potential suicide or self-harm - not in an emergency situation where a suicide attempt is actively in progress," she said.

In this case, police and paramedics who responded were acutely focused on ensuring the safety and well-being of the man and getting him to hospital so he could receive the appropriate treatment from medical professionals."

Edmonton police respond to hundreds of mental-health-related calls every month, according to data they provided. These can be Mental Health Act complaints, suicide attempts or calls for escaped patients, among other things.

In October 2022 (the most recent month with available data), the police service got 597 such calls, representing just over nine per cent of the total number of calls for service that month. In 2021, it received 7,723 calls for service classified as mental-health-related.

From Lukaszuk's standpoint, it seemed a large number of police officers showed up to his call with little understanding of how to properly respond to a traumatic situation. Sheppard said officers do receive trauma-informed police training."

Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University, questioned why, after the police responded, they didn't ask for a PACT team to come. But even then, the role of the team is to respond to the situation at hand, and not necessarily deal with any traumatic fallout being experienced by community members.

That would have to fall to a community mental wellness organization, he said. But it's still questionable why this call wouldn't warrant sending a social worker out, he added.

The social worker is trained to potentially mitigate any kind of mental health responses that they're encountering by way of an individual who may be attempting to take their own life or attempting to harm someone else," King said.

The social worker there has to intervene when it's a mental health issue, but then pull back when it turns into a policing issue in terms of firearms, assaults, that kind of stuff."

Sheppard said each individual reacts to trauma differently" and that the police service includes Crime and Trauma-Informed Support Services, which provides emotional support to community members, but that utilizing these resources is an individual choice."

Whether the impacts of a major incident are immediate or delayed, CTSS will ensure everyone who reaches out is treated with respect, dignity and compassion as they work through their trauma," she said.

Lukaszuk said that was bizarre," adding that trauma isn't like a broken leg: You don't always know you need help when you experience it.

The incident raised other issues for Lukaszuk, who fled communist Poland when he was a kid before growing up in Alberta.

The overwhelming response seemed to him like a paramilitary force rolling into a situation rather than first responders coming to an emergency. He noted the black uniforms, pants tucked into boots, black vehicles and overall militaristic esthetic of Edmonton's officers and wondered what kind of culture that encourages in the service. (He also pointed to uniforms in New Zealand and the U.K., which often, in contrast, have bright yellow reflective material on clothes and cars.)

Research has echoed this as well. A paper published by Carleton University researchers in 2021 found that people's perceptions of police were affected by the uniforms they wear.

On the one hand, militarized uniforms and equipment may increase the degree to which the public fears the police, without decreasing perceptions of professionalism or respect. This may allow the police to maintain social control and perhaps even enhance officer safety," it said.

On the other hand, militarized uniforms and equipment may decrease chances for the police to establish strong trusting relationships with the communities they serve."

It asked survey participants to give feedback on various uniforms. In one scenario, researchers asked them to compare an officer in very dark attire versus one wearing a light-coloured shirt with a yellow stripe down the pant legs.

Respondents found the officer in the darker uniform significantly more unprofessional, unreliable, and apt to engage in unethical behaviour" and perceived them to be more aggressive, intimidating, rude, mean, corruptible, uncaring, and unhelpful," the study reported.

Particularly in Canada, a country made up in large part by immigrants, police should be more approachable" and reflect the people they need to protect," Lukaszuk said.

For many immigrants, police are the agents of the wrongdoers" and are a very negative thing to begin with," Lukaszuk added.

It is the culture, this militarization of police.

They're armed to their teeth. Their vehicles look offensive and intimidating. They see themselves as a police force, not a police service, and I think there's a big distinction between those two."

It's something Engel has thought about, too. When he began his law career in the 1980s, officers in Edmonton dressed in light grey shirts and drove yellow and white cars.

It also becomes hard for citizens to tell EMS, firefighters and police apart when they all wear dark uniforms like that, especially at night, said Engel.

The uniforms, I think, are important," he said.

I'm sure the cops moved to those (new) uniforms because the cops love them and it made them look tough and intimidating, and it does."

Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavittIf you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, there is help. Resources are available online at talksuicide.ca or you can connect to the national suicide prevention helpline at 1-833-456-4566, or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.