Officer shot man in head after being stabbed
Mentally ill man would not drop his weapons, coroner’s inquest into police shooting hears
The jury was silent as they listened to Peterborough Police Service communications on the night Cody Cole was killed by gunshot.
“Shots fired, I’ve been stabbed,” cried a desperate voice on the radio, belonging to Const. Jeff Plumbe.
A moment later the radio piped up again.
“Shots fired on Wolfe,” he declared.
The police communications were one piece of evidence heard by jurors and witnesses Thursday during a coroner’s inquest into the death of Cody Cole. The inquest is being held to come up with recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.
On April 4, 2015 Plumbe confronted Cole, who stabbed the officer with one of two knives he was carrying. The officer then fired one shot, hitting the 23-yearold in the head, killing him instantly.
Plumbe was cleared by the province’s Special Investigations Unit in December 2015, with the SIU investigation concluding that Plumbe was justified in his use of force.
During the inquest, jurors heard from witnesses who followed Cole throughout the night and saw the incident unfold.
According to witnesses who spoke on the second day of the inquest, there was some conflict between Cole and a group of three women who were outside the Tim Hortons on George Street, which is when Cole exposed two knives he was hiding in his jacket.
Preston Dunn, one of the group members who was hanging out with friends at the Tim Hortons, says he heard Cole yell something but doesn’t remember what he yelled. Dunn would be one of the people who trailed Cole to Wolfe Street that night.
Cole then proceeded north on George Street with the group of women following him. Some saw the incident outside the Tim Hortons unfold and followed by vehicle.
Steven Post, who did not speak at the inquest but whose testimony was heard via recorded interview, said he decided to follow in his truck. He said he didn’t think it was safe for the women to be following some person holding two knives.
Post said he and a friend followed the group and saw them on Sherbrooke Street. It was at that point Post says Cole took a swipe at one of the women with a knife.
At that point Post said he got out of the truck to distract Cole from the women and a knife was swung at him.
“It missed me by about a foot and a half,” he said in the recording.
Cole then fled the area toward a Sherbrooke Street home, still being trailed by the group with one of them dialing 911 on Post’s phone.
The group witnessed him try to enter a home from the front porch but then go around the back and hop a fence.
Some of the people following Cole followed him down an alleyway to try and restrain him, the jury heard from witnesses, but fled when Cole threw a knife at one of them.
It was when Cole appeared on Wolfe Street that Post said he flagged down a police cruiser, which had been dispatched after the 911 call, and he informed Plumbe about the man with the knives concealed in his jacket.
The officers immediately left their vehicle and told Cole to drop his weapons, which according to Post and other witnesses, he did not comply with and then kept walking. The officer then drew his firearm.
“The guy seemed really unstable, very unstable,” Post said. “He wouldn’t respond to anybody’s voice.”
Several recountings of that night gave jurors a similar story of what happened next. The officer grabbed Cole around the neck or collar area to try and pull him down.
Cole then took out the knife and spun around, stabbing the officer in the left leg.
The officer then took a few steps back and fired his gun once, hitting Cole in the head. Cole immediately fell to the ground and was not responsive.
“He didn’t move, he didn’t twitch,” Post said. “It was really fast.”
The officer then called for backup, which quickly responded. First aid was performed on Cole but at that point he was already dead.
A summary of selected medical records, entered as evidence at the inquest, painted a picture of Cole as someone who struggled for years with mental health.
Dating back as far as October 2011, meetings with Cole’s case worker, his mother and a registered nurse detailed issues with depression, schizophrenia, use of cannabis and at some points a reluctance to take medication.
Notes from Dec. 18, 2013 and Jan. 8, 2014 say Cole heard voices telling him to hurt himself and that he believed people could hear his thoughts.
The January meeting is described in the notes as an “urgent followup because (Cole is) not doing well.”
On April 2, 2014, Cole is admitted to Peterborough Regional Health Centre and is discharged in June 2014. He is later admitted again on Nov. 10, 2014 and discharged on Jan. 2, 2015.
Michael Girard, a use of force expert and trainer at the Ontario Police College, spoke at the inquest, detailing the training officers’ receive at the college, equipment and techniques.
“Sometimes in controlling (dangerous) behaviours, high levels of force are necessary,” Girard told jurors.
Girard says there are a number of factors when police choose to use a firearm, such as visibility, environmental conditions like snow or rain, distance and the subject’s behaviours.
He also says there’s no set number of bullets officers are trained to fire, as it’s whatever number needed until the subject’s “behaviour changes.”
He adds it’s not like television or film where weapons can be shot out of people’s hands, as officers are trained to aim for the upper torso, or “centre of mass.” It not only provides the largest target, he says, but it provides the best opportunity for stopping the subject while also stopping the bullet from leaving the target and potentially hitting someone or something else.
Jurors also heard from Girard about other tools for physical control, including pepper spray and batons.
He says while those tools have their uses in incapacitation, they may not always be reliable. Subjects may be able to overcome pepper spray and batons are not always effective at disarming people, jurors heard.
Girard also talked about grounding, a police technique which Plumbe appeared to attempt when he grabbed Cole in the neck area.
The police trainer says grounding is a technique of placing a subject face down on the ground to reduce their mobility and the subject’s ability to resist.
Girard said police are also taught to be careful around subjects with knives and other bladed weapons. He says there’s no safe distance when dealing with someone with a blade as they may try to close the gap quickly and it’s no guarantee discharging a firearm at the subject will stop them.
“A few feet close to someone with a knife is very dangerous,” Girard said.
The inquiry continued Friday with Plumbe’s testimony.