ROCKWOOD – “It’s been 60 days, and still no answers.”
That’s how much time had passed since Nathaniel Schofield, a 36-year-old father of six living in Arthur, died in OPP custody on July 10.
And it’s why a group of people, including Angel Mitchell, gathered for a protest in front of the Rockwood OPP station on Sept. 8.
“He’s dead, and for what?” Mitchell asked. “We don’t know.”
“Dear Nathaniel isn’t here to stand up for himself,” said his mother Faye Dzikewich, so “myself and the community, family, friends need to take this stand.”
Milestones he’ll miss
Among the 30-or-so people at the protest was Schofield’s widow, Angelique Hunter, holding a sign with the words “But Daddy, I never got to say good bye.”
“My daughter has this written on her wall,” Hunter told the Advertiser.
She said the protest marked the first time she made it out to a public event for Schofield, and it was very hard to be there.
People protested across the street from the Rockwood OPP station on Sept. 8, demanding an explanation about how Nathaniel Schofield died in OPP custody two months ago.
“I just want to stay inside, with my kids,” she said.
Tears streamed down Hunter’s cheeks as she reflected on the significant moments in her children’s futures that their dad will miss.
“My daughters don’t have anyone to walk them down the aisle,” she said.
And their 16-year-old son Hayden is already talking about how, when he eventually becomes a father himself, his dad won’t be there to hold the baby.
“The kids are going to go their whole lives without their dad,” Hunter said.
‘A verbal argument’
For Hunter and Schofield’s eight-year-old son Aleks, the last memory he has of his father is witnessing his dad’s arrest.
Hunter said Schofield begged the officers not to arrest him in front of his son – to take him around the corner, out of sight, instead, but the officers refused.
On the night of Schofield’s arrest, Hunter said the couple was “having a verbal argument – and it was nobody’s business to call the police in the first place.
“It wasn’t anything violent,” she said. “We are young parents with six kids – things are going to get tense once in a while.”
Now, Hunter worries her children will never feel safe calling the police for help.
“He was supposed to be safe while in their care,” she said.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d get that phone call” (about Schofield’s death), she said.
“I was supposed to be planning our wedding this summer, not a funeral.
“There’s absolutely no reason why he shouldn’t have come home. He was not a trouble maker. He was perfectly healthy.”
Faye Dzikewich, right, organized a peaceful protest across from the Rockwood OPP station on Sept. 8, in memory of her son Nathaniel Schofield, who died in OPP custody on July 10. The sign in the middle shows a photo of Angel Mitchell’s son, that she alleges was taken after he was “beaten” by police officers.
“Now, it’s the kids that are going to suffer,” she said.
And it’s the kids, she added, who really deserve to know how Schofield died – “Not the gory details, but they deserve to know what happened to their dad.”
Kyle Jones pulled Hunter into a hug as she became overcome with emotion.
Tears spilled from Jones’ eyes, too, as he comforted the grieving widow.
“Me and Nat have been best friends since we were 14,” he told the Advertiser.
“We worked together; lived together. The amount of times we had together that were absolutely phenomenal. I will never forget him.”
Support from a stranger
Dean Mitchelmore was at the Guelph courthouse on July 10 when Dzikewich found out Nathaniel had died, and he attended the protest on Sept. 8 to show support.
Dzikewich and Mitchelmore didn’t know each other before that day, though Mitchelmore said he had met Schofield before.
While Dzikewich sat in a court room waiting for her son to appear on the day of his death, Mitchelmore was in the same room, waiting to bail a friend out of jail.
He said he heard an OPP officer tell the judge that Schofield would not be attending court that day, and that more information would be provided the following day.
“The judge said ‘No, that’s not good enough,’” Mitchelmore said, noting the judge insisted the officer provide more information.
Dean Mitchelmore was at the Guelph Court House on July 10, when Nathaniel Schofield’s mother found out he was dead.
That’s when the officer said Schofield had been rushed to Guelph General Hospital, Mitchelmore recalled, and “Faye ran out the door.”
Mitchelmore followed her out of the courtroom, and when he caught up with her outside, “she was not in any shape,” he said.
Dzikewich had just gotten a call from Hunter informing her that her son had died.
“She literally started to fall to the ground,” Mitchelmore said.
“I supported her, stood her up, and gave her a hug.”
He also gave her a can of pop from his backpack.
The small gesture of kindness made an impact when she needed it most, Dzikewich previously told the Advertiser.
Crisis response alternative
The protestors also included Issac Petonoquot and Lori Lafond, who say Petonoquot had a horrible experience with police during a crisis support call five years ago.
Lafond said she didn’t know where Petonoquot was for three days – she was told he was at a hospital, but he was really at Maplehurst Correctional Complex.
Lafond and Petonoquot have launched an organization in Cambridge called Womb with a View, a “culturally relevant crisis response alternative that is rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing.”
Lori Lafond, left, and Issac Petonoquot travelled to Rockwood from Cambridge to show support for Schofield and his family.
They focus on supporting BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, Lafond said.
“Police don’t seem to understand the trauma that can bring somebody to breaking point,” Lafond said.
For more information about Womb with a View visit facebook.com/p/A-Womb-With-A-View-100089303556029.
Hope for change
Many of the attendees discussed experiences their loved ones have had with police and incarceration.
Angel Mitchell says her son was treated terribly by police officers, and April Belcastro said her father is “a survivor of the Kingston Penitentiary.”
From left, April Belcastro, Caley Sanders and Angel Mitchell. Sanders and Mitchell are long-time friends of Nathaniel Schofield’s mother, Faye Dzikewich, and Sanders, who was tearful during the protest, cared for Schofield when he was a child.
Mitchell said when visiting Dzikewich recently, she recommended the mourning mother “look for the light” in her son’s tragic story.
The system needs to change to prevent unnecessary deaths, protestors kept repeating.
“Nathaniel is going to open this door towards change,” Mitchell said.
SIU investigation
Schofield’s death is being investigated by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which has designated a “subject official” – an officer whose conduct appears “to have been the cause of the incident under investigation” which led to Schofield’s death.
The SIU is reviewing footage captured from inside OPP cells.
The SIU will determine whether there are grounds to charge an official in relation to the incident. If grounds are not found, a public report will be released.
When possible, the SIU must complete investigations within 120 days, according to the SIU website.
