It’s been over 80 days since Nathaniel Schofield, a 36-year-old Arthur man, died while in police custody at the Rockwood detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, and his friends and family still have no idea why, how, or what happened. On Sunday, over 30 community members gathered outside The Boathouse and then marched around Carden Street and down to the Ontario court house to let everyone know, they’re still waiting for answers.

“I’ve made it clear that I won’t stop until I get answers, and it’s not just answers on what happened to him, it’s the whole way they handled it, right from the beginning on the night of his arrest till the very next day, till that night,” said Faye Dzikewich, Nathaniel’s mother. “It will help me start to be able to grieve properly, it’s consumed me.”

According to media reports, Nathaniel Schofield was arrested for what OPP for what was described as a “minor offence” on July 9 in Arthur. He was held in custody at the North Wellington Operations Centre in Teviotdale before being transferred to the South Wellington Operations Centre in Rockwood.

That’s where, according to the SIU, Schofield was “observed to be in medical distress. First Aid was administered, and Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in Guelph.”

“Most people have followed the story, you know he died in custody, but we don’t know how or why they handled it that day, outright being lied to in a courtroom at four in the afternoon by an OPP cop that called in and stated that my son was just taken to the hospital in medical distress knowing full well that he had passed,” Dzikewich explained.

It was at Guelph General Hospital at 11:20 am on July 10 where Schofield was pronounced dead, and for the last 81 days that’s all his friends and family have known.

“They have 120 days to complete their investigation. It could possibly take longer, so I’m hoping to hear some news after that,” Dzikewich said. “Unless they have something to actually update me on, I don’t want to really speak to them.”

Dzikewich said that the lack of news or explanation from either the OPP or the SIU should be of concern to the entire community because if it can happen to her son and her family, it can happen to anyone.

“I never thought this would happen to our family in a million years, and now I’ve learned that there are a lot more cases out there and something has to be done to prevent it,” she said. “That’s my message to the community: There’s power in numbers, and everyone needs to stand together until there is change.”

Schofield’s father and his partner, Angel, the mother of his six children, were also at Sunday’s protest outside the courthouse and across the street from Guelph Police headquarters. Everyone there was infuriated by the simple fact that they have no idea why their loved one is gone, and why he was even in police custody in the first place.

“They arrested him even though he had no record, it wasn’t necessary for him to even be held.  This whole thing from the get go has been just one thing after another, it doesn’t make make sense or add up,” Dzikewich said.