Day 2 of the coroners inquest into the death of Jeremy Sabourin began on Tuesday at the Moose Jaw Court of Kings Bench with Const. Rod Zoerb of the Moose Jaw Police Service and focused on search procedures and the firearm used in Sabourin’s death. 

As a member of the Moose Jaw Police Service, Zoerb is a full-time instructor at the Saskatchewan Police College. 

He said officers are taught two methods of searching: with the subject handcuffed and not handcuffed. The officers then search from the waistband up and then the waistband down. 

“Waistbands are notorious, and we know this from our training in police college,” Zoerb told the inquest. 

Zoerb said if they can’t get someone in a proper position to search them there are ways to modify the search to get to the areas you need to search. He added that having a subject lean forward during a search would not help. 

He confirmed that a holster clipped inside the waistband of pants or underwear should be found in a thorough search regardless of the location. 

It was also the first time at the inquest that a Moose Jaw officer offered an answer to why a metal detector wand was not used. Zoerb said it was complacency that had been handed down from older officers. 

He added that a metal detector wand is “redundant”, but it is an “extra layer” to make sure nothing gets missed. He went on to say that it is up to the individual officer to follow police policies and it is up to administration to update policies and make sure everyone understands. 

As a firearms instructor and a vast knowledge of guns, Zoerb was familiar with the gun used. He said it was a small revolver about the size of a large hand and the holster appeared to be for that gun. He said the gun, a North American Mini-Master 22-calibre revolver, is a restricted firearm but it is not prohibited. 

Sabourin died while in the custody on the Moose Jaw Police Service on Oct. 7, 2021 following a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. co 

Under The Coroners Act, 1999, the chief coroner can hold a public inquest into the death of an inmate unless the coroner is satisfied that the person’s death was from natural causes and was not preventable.  

According to the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety and the coroner’s office, public inquests are fact-finding only and are not intended to find fault.   

Inquests are held to inform the public about the circumstances around the death, make dangerous practices and conditions known and make recommendations to avoid preventable deaths. 

Discover Moose Jaw will have more coverage as Day 2 of the inquest wraps up.