'We did our due diligence': Sask. man released from custody hours before killing his mother, police say

Prince Albert police say a 29-year-old man charged in the murder of his mother had assaulted a staff member at Victoria Hospital the night before the killing.

Officers were called to a residence on 28th Street West with the report of a violent family dispute just before 2 p.m. on Saturday, according to a Prince Albert police news release. When they arrived, they found 51-year-old Beverly Constant dead at the scene. Her son, Everett Constant, is charged with second-degree murder in her death.

In a news release late Monday, police said they responded to the same residence on 28th Street on Friday, the night before the killing, to support Parkland Ambulance with a medical call.

Police said paramedics took Everett to Victoria Hospital, where he later assaulted hospital staff. After being medically cleared, he was arrested and held overnight at the Prince Albert Police Service cells.

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The next day, police released him with orders to appear in provincial court on May 30 to face the charge of assault with a weapon against hospital staff.

That afternoon, police were called back to the residence with reports of a violent family dispute.

The Bryant Place social housing development on 28th Street where police found the body of Beverly Constant. (Source: Prince Albert Housing Authority)

"And sadly, that's when it was discovered; that 51-year-old Beverly Constant was pronounced dead at the scene," Prince Albert police chief Patrick Nogier told CTV News.

“It's terrible. It's a tragic, tragic situation,” he said.

Nogier would not share any details of what brought Everett to the hospital on Friday, as it's private medical information, but he says officers made the call to release him after the hospital assault with the best information that was available to them at the time.

"As an organization, you know, we try to look at the foreseeable risk of releasing an individual to appear in court on an assault charge," said Nogier.

"We did our due diligence," he said. "We just don't have a crystal ball to, to determine what's going to happen at the end of that day after he'd been released."

When an invididual is arrested without a warrant, Nogier says it's the responsibility of police to make sure they've made an appearance before a justice of the peace or are released on court conditions "as soon as reasonably practicable." 

At that point, police consider an offender's level of sobriety, why they're being held, their demeanour since the arrest, and whether there's someone in the community willing to take them in and they have a place to go, says Nogier.

"We've looked at those to make sure those boxes were checked prior to releasing the individual on Saturday morning."

Nogier acknowledged his decision to release the timeline in this killing stemmed from a desire to respond with transparency, in light of allegations against Prince Albert Police Service officers in recent years, including a 2023 Public Complaints Commission report that found two officers in 'neglect of duty' in the death of 13-month old Kaij Brass.

The report lead to the resignation of the former chief of police amid scorn from the rank and file officers.

When Nogier later assumed the role, he said he aimed to "earn the trust" of the community. Releasing the timeline in this killing, he hopes people will understand his officers were doing the best they could with the information they had.

"To provide more information, rather than have people jump to their own conclusion about how something rolled out," Nogier said.

Everett made his first court appearance on Monday.

Police say the criminal investigation division and forensic unit continue to investigate, with an autopsy currently underway.