Parents of Brome Lake teen shot by SQ officer file complaint with Police Ethics Commission
After months of unanswered questions surrounding the death of their son Riley Fairholm, Tracy Wing and Lawrence Fairholm have filed an official complaint with the Police Ethics Commission.
The complaint, separated into four parts: the police intervention, the scene of the incident, the hospital, and the investigation, points to dozens of alleged violations of the code of ethics for Quebec police officers and implicates members of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) as well as the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI).
“Riley is not going to come back. It would be nice to prevent this sort of thing from happening again,” said Riley’s mother Tracy Wing.
Riley, who was 17-years-old, was shot and killed by an SQ officer around 1:45 a.m. on July 25, 2018. He was believed to be carrying a weapon and acting in a threatening manner towards the officers on the scene, according to a preliminary statement released by the BEI, the police watchdog that investigates all cases where a person is injured or killed during a police intervention.
It has since been confirmed that Riley was alone on the street, carrying a BB gun.
According to the complaint to the ethics commission filed by Wing on Tuesday afternoon, the incident that resulted in the death of Riley Fairholm was mishandled at every step, from the intervention up to the current investigation by the BEI.
Given the fact that Riley was alone, Wing doesn’t understand how he could have been a danger to anyone but himself, and was never told what he did that prompted an officer to shoot.
When a police intervention results in injury or death, the investigation is supposed to be handed over to the BEI immediately.
Over an hour passed between the time Riley was shot and when the BEI was informed of the situation.
During that time, Wing, who was at the scene just after the shooting, gave a declaration to an SQ officer under the presumption that Riley had hurt himself.
“We cannot be sure that the declaration and statements were not shared with the other SQ officers on the scene,” the complaint reads.
Wing pointed out that when she later arrived at the hospital, information about Riley was withheld by an SQ officer there to serve as a liaison between the hospital and Wing and Fairholm.
“The SQ had that hospital under siege,” Wing said, explaining that she was denied permission to see her son. She was told it was because of the BEI investigation.
“They didn’t even know Riley was dead,” she said. “We find it curious that it is only at this time that we were informed of the circumstances of Riley’s death, however details were not given, such as where he was shot. We do believe that the location of the projectile on Riley’s body is the reason we were not given access to him. Riley was shot in the forehead, one shot that killed him instantly. We believe that the BEI were only notified after the coroner was advised,” the complaint reads.
“The BEI and I had a big sit down,” Wing said, a few weeks after the incident. They explained that the investigation would be neutral, transparent, and focus only on the police intervention.
Riley would not be referred to as a victim, the officer who fired would not be charged with a crime.
“The BEI is supposed to be working for me,” Wing thought following the meeting. “After about two weeks, I realized that’s not the case.”
“They’re really looking at Riley’s background,” commented Wing, “It’s like they’re building a case for the police. If they only investigate the intervention, they shouldn’t look at Riley’s last 48 hours,” she said.
According to Wing, no investigation was done regarding the state of mind of the officer who pulled the trigger leading up to the shooting.
One of the access to information supporting documents for the complaint that Wing requested from the BEI revealed that the SQ officer who shot Riley refused to answer questions from BEI investigators immediately following the shooting.
“As for how Riley died-i don’t think I’ll ever know that,” Wing said.
The purpose of the complaint that she and Fairholm have filed is to see that police are held accountable for their actions.
“Now I know that there’s a separate and I believe unbiased place that’s going to look at it,” Wing said.
“It almost is all-consuming, but we’re doing well as a family. It is helping me speak for Riley and defend him. I’ve been doing that all his life. The only difference is he’s not here,” she commented.
“I’ve been following my gut,” she added, asking questions wherever details seem a little off.
The treatment she and Fairholm received while at the hospital was inexcusable, according to Wing. They were not permitted to see their son until four days after he was killed.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get past that,” Wing said.