Instructions were given Thursday morning at the Court of King's Bench by presiding coroner Blaine Beaven to the six-person jury in the coroner’s inquest into the death of 40-year-old Assiniboia man Jeremy Sabourin. 

Over the past four days, the jury has heard evidence from 13 witnesses. 

The jury will now decide the name of the deceased, the time and date of the death, where the death took place, the cause of death and by what means. 

The jury can also make recommendations to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.

Here’s what we know 

According to the testimony, Sabourin had been wanted for about a year on a warrant for a sexual assault charge. He was found at an auto parts store in Assiniboia by Const. Paisley Armstrong on Oct. 6, 2021. After some resistance, Paisley was able to get Sabourin under arrested and called for backup. 

Cpl. Mark Dijkstra performed a roadside search of Sabourin before he was transported to the detachment. 

Sabourin was again searched before being booked at the detachment by Const. Colin Tetreault, who had only been sworn in as an RCMP officer for less than a month. He was supervised by Armstrong, who was his field training officer, and Sgt. Dennis Silliker, the detachment’s commanding officer. A physical search took place but a metal detector wand was not used. The search only turned up a USB drive in his pocket. 

Tetreault and Silliker also searched Sabourin’s truck and found a loaded 9mm handgun and 22-calibre ammunition. Sabourin was subsequently charged with unsafe storage of a firearm.  

Search warrants were executed at Sabourin’s residence and his parent’s house to seize any guns he owned. The officers learned to a “small gun” that was never recovered at either house. 

Const. Paul Evans of the Coronach RCMP at the time transported Sabourin to the Moose Jaw Police Service for Sabourin’s court date in Moose Jaw scheduled for the following day. Travelling with them was Sabourin’s C-13 booking report that did not include the new gun charge. Evans testified that he never searched Sabourin. 

Sabourin arrived at the Moose Jaw Police Service on the evening on Oct. 6 and was booked into a holding cell. Const. Chris Flanagan was the staff sergeant at the time in charge of the holding cells. Flanagan asked Evans if Sabourin had been searched. Flanagan received an answer that he was searched and no other searches took place in Moose Jaw. 

On the morning of Oct. 7, 2021, Const. Payton Denet was getting the prisoners ready for court. Sabourin told Denet his back was hurting and was having a hard time getting up. Denet went to get his commanding officer, Flanagan. When Flanagan got to the cell Sabourin was sitting up. Sabourin told Flanagan to look away as he took a small revolver and shot himself in the head. 

The revolver was a 22-caliber gun about the size of a large hand. Also found clipped inside Sabourin’s pants on his right side was a holster for the revolver, insinuating that the gun was missed during the searches. 

Since the incident, the Saskatchewan RCMP and the Moose Jaw Police Service have made metal detector wand searches mandatory for prisoners.