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Police watchdog launches probe into RMCP investigation of Colten Boushie’s death

The 22-year-old was shot on a Saskatchewan farm in 2016
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Gerald Stanley enters the Court of Queen’s Bench for the fifth day of his trial in Battleford, Sask., Monday, Feb.5, 2018. (Liam Richards/The Canadian Press)

A police watchdog has launched a probe into the RCMP’s investigation into the shooting death of an Indigenous man on a Saskatchewan farm.

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP says it is looking into how the RCMP handled the death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie.

Boushie, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation, died in 2016 when the SUV he was in drove on to a farm near Biggar, Sask.

Last month, a jury acquitted 56-year-old Gerald Stanley.

READ: ‘Justice for Colten’ rally draws dozens in Vancouver after not-guilty verdict

Boushie’s family had been calling for a review of the RCMP investigation.

Boushie’s mother has said that when RCMP came to notify her about her son’s death, officers were insensitive, started searching her home without permission and asked her if she’d been drinking.

An internal RCMP investigation, done by a senior Indigenous officer, absolved the police force.

READ: Mountie believed to have posted to Facebook saying Colten Boushie ‘got what he deserved’

The commission will also review and investigate the RCMP’s dismissal of the Boushie family’s initial public complaint.

“In the course of our review and our ongoing monitoring of events related to this tragic incident, it has become apparent that additional matters related to the conduct of RCMP members involved need to be examined,” the commission’s acting chairperson, Guy Bujold, said in a release Tuesday.

“As such, I am satisfied that it is in the public interest to launch an independent investigation into this matter.”

The Canadian Press