Officer ‘ devastated’ after killing hammer-wielding man in 2015
• A Toronto police officer who fatally shot a hammer- wielding man in the city two years ago said Wednesday he was “devastated” by the confrontation’s grim conclusion, but maintained he had no choice but to open fire.
Const. Andrew Doyle was testifying at a coroner’s inquest into Andrew Loku’s death, and he addressed the man’s relatives, who weren’t present, directly at one point.
“This entire event was an absolute tragedy for everyone involved,” he said from the witness stand. “This is not the result that anybody wanted, especially me. I am absolutely devastated by this and I’m sorry that this was the end result of the situation that I was involved in.”
The officer’s testimony was his first time speaking publicly about his role in Loku’s death, an incident that sparked days of protest from the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter.
The inquest heard that a woman called 911, saying Loku had threatened to kill her friend.
Doyle testified that he and his partner responded to the call and arrived to find Loku in an apartment building hallway shortly after midnight on July 5, 2015.
The officer recalled drawing his gun and pointing it at Loku after spotting that the man was holding a hammer.
Doyle said he shouted at Loku repeatedly to drop his weapon but then fired twice when the man, who was about 7.5 metres away, started walking towards him and his partner with the hammer raised.
“I was afraid for my life,” Doyle told the inquest.
Asked whether he could have shot Loku’s arm or leg instead, Doyle said police training called for officers to aim for the “centre mass.”
He also said using another weapon, such as a baton or pepper spray, would not have been enough, and he was not carrying a stun gun at the time.
The lawyer representing Loku’s family pressed Doyle on why he didn’t take a different approach when it became clear that shouting at Loku wasn’t effective.
Doyle could have changed his tone or backed up onto the landing at the end of the hall and closed the door to contain Loku, as had been demonstrated in a training scenario the officer observed, Jonathan Shine suggested.
But the constable said he never considered that option and in fact wasn’t aware that there was a door, nor did he believe there was time for such a strategy.
Shine said surveillance vi deo s uggests only 21 seconds went by between the moment Loku turned toward the officers and when he was shot — time the officer “spent doing nothing but screaming at Mr. Loku.”
Ontario’s police watchdog has found that the officer who shot Loku did not exceed the range of justifiable force.