Police accused of ‘stonewalling’ family of man who died after making 911 call

On the morning of Aug. 30, 2024, Rick Buerger and Christine Stark arrived at their brother Ralph Buerger’s house in Fonthill, Ont., to find he had died overnight at just 59 years old.

They later learned Ralph had contacted 911 at 2:56 a.m., apparently to ask for help, but he’d been unable to speak. The call lasted 35 seconds.

A recording of the call, released to the family after Global News began asking questions of police, contains what sounds like someone falling to the ground, followed by apparent heavy breathing.

Despite the sounds appearing audible in the recording, neither police nor paramedics were dispatched to Ralph’s address that night. The family said police promised them an investigation into why a wellness check wasn’t ordered, with officers, they said, acknowledging something had gone wrong.

Almost a year later, however, Rick and Christine are still waiting to see the results of the investigation into what happened that night, which they were told was complete in October.

Rick and Christine say police said they’d have to use freedom of information laws to access a recording of the 911 call and read the investigation. Officers told them the report cleared the operator and police of making any mistake.

Until Thursday, neither Rick nor Christine had been given access to the recording as they tried to navigate a complicated appeals process and police accountability mechanisms.

They say the entire ordeal has been traumatic, cruel and unnecessary.

“It’s even very difficult because it’s not allowing us to actually grieve our brother because we feel like we have to be in a fight for something,” Christine said.

When Rick and Christine arrived to find their brother had died, and later learned he had tried to make a 911 call, they asked police how it could have happened.

A friend of Ralph’s had worked out from his phone records that he had made the call for emergency help. The same friend then contacted police to ask them to look into why nobody was sent to the house.

Christine said she was told the 911 operator had tried to call back but had not received an answer. Christine said they were told they had checked if Ralph had ever made a call to 911 before and had pinged the phone number and located the area — within about 30 metres — where the call had come from.

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She alleged the police detective she spoke to said that at that point admitted that someone had “messed up.

“They made a mistake because nobody was sent,” she recalled the officer saying.

Christine said she was told by the detective that he would be surprised if the chief of police was not already looking into how that had happened.

Niagara Regional Police refused to comment on any elements of the events surrounding the death or the 911 call, including a request from Global News for the force to share its version of events.

Soon after, however, the police’s attitude appeared to change.

On Oct. 27, a detective called Rick to inform him that a professional standards investigation into the 911 call had been completed and determined there was “no misconduct” on the part of the operator.

In the call, which Global News has heard a copy of, the detective told Rick the 911 operator could not “hear any sounds or noises on the call that would cause her concern.”

Rick said he didn’t understand how the police had gone from telling them somebody had made a mistake to saying there were no issues. Christine agreed.

“We had good faith in the police at the beginning that they were going to be assisting us through this process,” she said. “And it just got stonewalled very early on, and it’s been extremely difficult.”

Global News has listened to a copy of the 911 call, which police finally shared with Rick this week. In it, the sound of a crash can be heard as well as strained, rhythmic air sounds, which could be breathing.

Niagara Regional Police did not address questions from Global News about the events in August, citing an ongoing investigation from Ontario’s Inspector General of Policing.

The Inspector General of Policing’s office refused to comment on the investigation.

Surprised by the change of position from the police, Rick asked for a copy of the 911 call his brother had made to listen to himself. He also requested a copy of the investigation.

“I said, ‘OK, can I have a copy of it?’” Rick said, recalling the phone discussion with the detective in October. “He goes, ‘No, you know the process on how to do that.’ So, then we started with freedom of information.”

Rick filed a request asking for the call recording, the investigation and a copy of 911 operating procedures. Niagara Regional Police, however, rejected it and said the information would not be disclosed, telling Rick he could file an appeal instead.

He then embarked on a painful negotiation, through Ontario’s privacy watchdog, to try and access the information police hold about the night his brother died.

“It’s really been hard on them and unnecessary as well,” local MPP Jeff Burch, who has been enlisted to help, said.

“To give a family closure, they want an apology, and they want to know that steps are taken so that this doesn’t happen to another family. I support them and I hope that they get a prompt and satisfactory response from the police.”

The process has taken its toll on Rick.

“Since January, I have been on calls to (the policing inspector) and (freedom of information appeals) or whatever emails — minimum six calls per month and 12 emails a month,” he said.

“Then, when I’m waiting for responses, because I live in Thailand, it’s the middle of the night, I can’t sleep, I’m always checking for responses.”

At around 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Global News sent detailed questions about Ralph’s death and Rick’s request for information to Niagara Regional Police. The next day, a spokesperson replied.

“This matter is currently under investigation by the Inspectorate of Policing (IoP),” they said. “In order to preserve the integrity of that process, it would be inappropriate to comment or provide further information at this time.”

Forty-eight hours after the questions were sent, however, the force finally relented on one of Rick’s requests, handing him the recording of the 911 call.

The investigation itself has still not been released, nor have the local 911 operator guidelines.

Rick and Christine say they’re tired of fighting for basic information and know that reading the investigation into the Aug. 30 call won’t bring their brother back.

Accessing the information might, though, bring them closure, and they say it will help them start to look forward again, and hopefully ensure lessons are learned so no family has to go through what they have.

“We understand, people make errors, humans make errors, and we get that,” Christine said.

“I just want them to honour what they initially said, that it was a mistake. Let’s look at what the error was — is it a financial constraint? Is it a staffing issue? What is the issue? So it can be rectified so it doesn’t happen again to someone else.”