Pubdate: Wed, 02 May 2001 Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329 Author: Caroline Murray SIU PROBES DEATH DURING DRUG RAID The province's Special Investigations Unit is looking into how a 57-year-old man died of a heart attack during a Monday night drug bust in Embrun, southeast of Ottawa. Johannes Speek of Russell was one of three people arrested after the OPP drug squad and the Casselman OPP detachment searched a St. Augustin St. address at 7:45 p.m. Inside, police found a half kilo of cocaine, half a gram of crack cocaine, and a small amount of marijuana. The OPP estimates the total street value of the drugs at $62,000. The investigation turned into a rescue effort after Speek complained of chest pains and dizziness. Police said officers at the scene promptly called an ambulance. Speek was pronounced dead when he reached Ottawa hospital at 9:20 p.m. "It all happened very quickly," OPP spokeswoman Const. Diana Hampson said yesterday. "The officers at the scene did what they could in the circumstances that were in front of them." An autopsy at the Ottawa Hospital General campus confirmed the cause of death was a heart attack. Speek's family told the Sun yesterday they were eager to learn more details. "He was going to retire in two to three years, " said Jonathan Lee Speek, the dead man's son. "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He said his father was celebrating his birthday and went to his daughter's home to have a beer. Five minutes after he arrived, the police showed up and raided the home. "He just wasn't my dad. He was my best friend," he said. Tragedy also struck the family last year when Speek's nephew, Trevor, was shot at his Hwy. 31 bachelor pad, just south of Greely. He was killed by career criminal Danny Feher who is currently before the courts. Investigators spent yesterday interviewing witnesses about Monday's death. The SIU is required to probe any deaths that occur in police custody. Police still expect to lay charges in connection with the drug bust. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe