‘None of their stories match’
Family of man shot by police has unanswered questions after testimony at MacIsaac inquest
At the conclusion of the coroner’s inquest testimony Wednesday of the officers who were at the scene of the police shooting death of Michael MacIsaac, his family’s demand for answers remained unchanged.
MacIsaac, 47, was shot dead on an Ajax street on Dec. 2, 2013 by Durham region police Const. Brian Taylor, who said a naked MacIsaac was advancing on him with a metal table leg.
Taylor was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.
On Tuesday, Const. Jeffrey Williams, who was parked behind Taylor on Dring St. that day, said he could not recall if MacIsaac said anything to Taylor before being shot, but that he was “marching” toward the police cruisers.
Williams testified he did hear Taylor say something to MacIsaac, however.
“I don’t know what he said, I know it was his voice, and just after I heard two pops,” Williams testified. Then on Wednesday, Const. Mark Brown, a designated “mental health response officer” who was parked behind Williams, testified he heard Taylor identify the men as police officers and that he heard MacIsaac shouting.
“I did hear him yell something, but didn’t hear what he actually yelled,” Brown testified, saying MacIsaac was “running slightly faster than a jog” down a driveway toward police and holding the table leg like a baseball bat.
Taylor himself testified last week that he remembered issuing and hearing the police challenge — “Police. Don’t move.” And he testified that MacIsaac was saying to him, “Come on, come on.”
It has also been previously pointed out at the inquest that Taylor cannot be heard shouting commands and MacIsaac cannot be heard saying anything on a 911 call that was placed by a civilian at the scene of the shooting and that the call was analyzed by a forensic scientist for the family, who found no breaks or alterations in the recording.
Taylor has speculated that the call dropped and did not capture everything that was said.
“I think none of their stories match,” MacIsaac’s sister, Joanne, told reporters Wednesday. “I’d like to say it’s surprising that the SIU didn’t have a lot more questions with this, but it seems to be the way the SIU handles these situations.” The SIU does not comment on probes that are the subject of a coroner’s inquest, and it has also never said in the past if it listened to, or even obtained, the 911 call.
Wednesday was an especially emotional day for the MacIsaac family, sitting in the front rows of the courtroom. Some family members, overcome by emotion, left during parts of Brown’s testimony.
Like Williams the day before him, Brown testified that his focus, after the shooting, was on helping MacIsaac. He said that once MacIsaac fell to the ground, he removed the table leg while the other officers remained with their guns drawn.
“I took control of Mr. MacIsaac, I took hold of his hands and he was actively resisting and not listening,” Brown testified, saying he was trying to administer first aid along with Williams. He said the only word from MacIsaac that he could make out was “pain.”
The term “actively resisting ” sparked a wave of sobbing from the MacIsaac family.
“Michael was met with such a lack of compassion, empathy and caring by these three men, right after he was shot,” Joanne MacIsaac told reporters. “When he’s naked, and cold and on the ground and you’re pushing in on his abdomen after he’s been shot, to use the phrase that he was still ‘actively resisting,’ my God, what is the matter with these people? What is the matter with each of them?”
Williams testified Tuesday that he retrieved first aid kits from the police vehicles and attempted to speak to MacIsaac, who was yelling but was incomprehensible.
“At that point it was my job to save his life,” Williams said. “He did eventually start speaking to me, he told me his name was Michael. I told him ‘I’m trying to help you, we have help on the way’ . . . I asked him what had happened. He told me he was hot.”
Coroner’s counsel Troy Harrison asked how long it took for an ambulance to arrive.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Williams said. “It was upsetting and chaotic.”
Williams said that when the ambulance did arrive, he jumped in the driver’s seat, offering to drive to the hospital so that the two paramedics could focus on MacIsaac. But one of his superiors at the scene had anoth- er officer drive and ordered Williams back to the police division because of his involvement in the shooting.
Under cross-examination by Anita Szigeti, lawyer for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Empowerment Council, it was pointed out to Williams that the first time an officer tried to calm MacIsaac down by asking his name and talking about help was after he had already been shot.
On Wednesday, Szigeti questioned Brown on his knowledge of mentalhealth issues and individuals in crisis, suggesting he has stereotyped or negative perceptions of persons with mental health issues, which he denied. The officer testified earlier that he received a 40-hour training course in either 2005 or 2006 to be designated a mental health response officer, which consisted largely of meeting the various agencies that can help individuals in crisis. He said he hasn’t taken any refresher courses since then.
Szigeti listed some of the observations Brown made to the SIU as to why he believed MacIsaac may have mental health issues, including glossy eyes and speaking gibberish.
“(These observations) could also be consistent with being shot, though,” she said.
After her cross-examination, Szigeti turned and quietly apologized to the MacIsaac family.
The inquest continues.