Photo: IIO BC

B.C.’s police watchdog has been called to Penticton to investigate the death of a man arrested by RCMP.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. says officers were called on Nov. 8 at 8:40 a.m. to a theft from a store. The suspect resisted arrest and sustained a "minor head injury."

“He was taken to hospital, which he subsequently left and had to be returned later, again by police,” the IIO said in a news release.

In hospital, the man’s condition deteriorated and he died six days later, on Nov. 14. The IIO was notified by the BC Coroners Service. 

The Coroners Service is conducting an investigation into the cause of the man’s death, while the IIO has opened a parallel probe into “what role, if any, officers’ actions or inaction may have played into the death of the male.”

The identity of the man has not been released.