SIU still probing shooting full year after police raid
LONDON, ONT. A year after a London man was killed during a police raid on his home, Ontario’s police watchdog is still probing the case and the man’s lawyer haunted by the shots he says he heard over the phone.
Samuel Maloney, 35, whose bizarre behaviour included a series of run-ins with authorities, was fatally shot during a pre-dawn raid on Dec. 23, 2016.
With the case still open on the first anniversary of the police-involved shooting, the city’s first in 17 years, Maloney’s former lawyer said he’s still awaiting answers and thinking of the dead man’s widow.
Nick Cake said he received a phone call shortly after 6 a.m. from Maloney, saying police were raiding the house where he lived with his common-law wife, Melissa Facciolo, and their two young children.
Cake said he heard a man yelling and Maloney and Facciolo screaming before four gunshots rang out.
Rushing to the scene, Cake later learned Maloney was fatally shot and Facciolo had been arrested.
“There is no greater person for whom this has impacted than Melissa herself,” Cake said. “How could one even imagine the impact of literally watching your husband ... get shot and die in the family home in front of (the children) two days before Christmas?”
Called in to probe the shooting, Ontario’s police watchdog agency is looking at the actions of three London police officers, with 18 others designated as witnesses.
The case is still open, Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokeswoman Monica Hudon said.
“At the conclusion of the investigation, a news release will be issued,” Hudon wrote in an email to Postmedia News.
Cake, who provided a statement to the SIU, said the lengthy investigation must be taking a toll on Facciolo, 36, and her children.
“I can only imagine what Melissa and her family is going through wanting some sense of closure,” said Cake, himself a father of three.
But the experienced criminal lawyer views the timeline as a sign of a thorough investigation.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing, because clearly it indicates that it’s not cut and dry,” Cake said.
“Clearly, it indicates that the SIU has things to investigate .... Everyone
wants them to get it right.”
Last year, the SIU took an average of 110 days to close a case.
With the SIU not releasing any information until its investigation is completed, little is known about what happened inside the home, when tactical officers stormed the house with a search warrant.
Sources previously said a crossbow was fired at an officer, but police officials have never confirmed that account.
Facciolo spent Christmas 2016 in jail, charged with possession of a weapon and ammunition while prohibited — related to the crossbow — before she was released three days later.
Police later charged her with four counts of drug possession after they said investigators seized marijuana, cannabis resin, magic mushrooms and LSD from the home, but those charges were withdrawn last month.
Facciolo, now living with her father in Newmarket, returns to court Jan. 16, when a date for a preliminary hearing could be set.
Following the death of Maloney, a computer programmer who was rarely seen outside his home, details began emerging about his life, including a long history of run-ins with authorities.
The first was in 2007, when police seized four loaded guns and 13,000 rounds of ammo from the red-brick bungalow. Both Maloney and Facciolo were charged. Maloney’s charges were later withdrawn, but Facciolo was given a 10-year weapons ban as part of a plea deal.
The couple’s unkempt property also drew visits from city bylaw officials over the years.
Six months before his death, Maloney was charged with multiple offences, including assaulting police and failure to leave a premise, after he showed up at the Hindu Cultural Centre in east London.
One of the most bizarre parts of Maloney’s life was uncovered by a Postmedia investigation that found he was living a double life as a Western University freshman.
Maloney had lived in residence, where he was a regular at parties and told students that he was 21, for at least part of the 2015-16 school year, making no mention of his family or home, said classmates, who were shocked to learn about his death.