Police communication criticized by coroner

When Const. Simon Chrétien responded to 911 calls at the apartment building where Pierre Coriolan lived in the summer of 2017, tenants sitting on their balcony rarely took notice.

But when the Montreal police officer and his five colleagues showed up following a call saying a mentally ill man was trashing his apartment, the mood was different.

“The residents were relieved that we were there,” Chrétien said at a coroner’s inquest investigating the fatal police shooting of Coriolan. “It was like the situation was more intense than usual.”

After pulling up outside the building, Chrétien was ordered to provide backup for Const. Mathieu Girard, who was armed with a Taser.

Coriolan, 58, was screaming incoherently and incessantly as police climbed the stairs to the third floor.

But within a minute of arriving at and opening the door to Apartment 310 — where officers saw him sitting on his couch, holding a screwdriver in one hand and a knife in the other — Chrétien shot the distressed man in the hallway as he charged at police Sgt. Jimmy Carl Michon also fired two shots at Coriolan after a Taser and plastic bullets fired by other officers failed to halt him.

“He was advancing faster than we could back up,” Chrétien said, adding that Coriolan continued to be combative after being wounded.

“I was scared for my life. I had no alternative. It was the hardest decision of my life.”

Faced with a similar situation, Chrétien said he would respond the same way. Four other Montreal police officers who have testified previously also said they would not change their tactics.

Coroner Luc Malouin appeared dismayed by Chrétien’s comment saying that the officers could have been better prepared had they taken a few minutes to speak to Coriolan’s neighbours before opening his apartment door.

“There was no discussion or plan about (trying to de-escalate the crisis),” he said. “Michon gave the orders and they went in.”

Once Michon and a second officer yelled: “Police, drop your weapon,” the opportunity to verbally engage with Coriolan had passed, Malouin said on Wednesday.

He was advancing faster than we could back up. I was scared for my life. I had no alternative. It was the hardest decision of my life.

CONST. SIMON CHRÉTIEN

“That’s the key,” he said. “At that point, de-escalation is impossible.”

Malouin is a proponent of using verbal de-escalation techniques to try to calm agitated citizens who are in crisis or are suffering from mental health problems.

In training sessions, Montreal police are encouraged to speak in a quiet voice, make a connection with the person, try to understand their problem and find them help.

They are discouraged from barking orders at mentally ill people.

All the officers who have testified said that Coriolan appeared to be disconnected from reality and didn’t respond to their commends. They said that de-escalation is not possible in all cases because it can be difficult to make a connection with some people who are in crisis.

Malouin also expressed surprise when Chrétien said he couldn’t recall whether he participated in any debriefing about the shooting with the other officers and a police official who is an expert in the use of force.

On Tuesday, Const. Lysianne Lapointe testified that all six officers participated in a debriefing a few weeks after Coriolan died. She said they discussed how they felt after the incident and what could be done differently.

“I can’t imagine the SPVM would not do a debriefing with an expert in the use of force to learn lessons,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. Vincent Moore said that he also had no recollection of a debriefing with the other officers about the fatal shooting of Coriolan. The police department holds debriefings whenever police use their gun, a Taser or fire plastic bullets, he said.

Coriolan had lived in the subsidized apartment building since 2008. He was about to be evicted for disturbing the peace and trying to start a fire in his studio apartment.