Investigators can’t confirm Moore’s prints were on knife

Young Indigenous mother was shot multiple times by an officer

FREDERICTON, N.B. — On the third day of the coroner’s inquest into the shooting death of 26-year-old Chantel Moore, there was uncertainty as to whether she was actually holding a steak knife when she was killed on June 4, 2020.

Francois Coiteux, an investigator with the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes du Québec (BEI), told the jury on May 18 that a lab analysis identified partial fingerprints on the knife found June 5 under a box near Moore’s body. However, the prints were not clear and could not be confirmed as matching Moore’s, raising questions about whether she was actually holding the knife when she was killed. The BEI is the police watchdog in Quebec that had been asked by the RCMP to conduct an investigation into Moore’s death.

Moore, an Indigenous woman, was killed by police who were responding to concerns they had received about her safety.

The lawyer for her family, T.J. Burke, said it’s difficult to determine what actually happened because an inquest is not a trial and he does not get to cross-examine the witnesses.

“The conclusion was that they could not make a determination based on the characteristics of the analysis of the knife, that Ms. Moore held that knife,” Burke said.

The New Brunswick attorney general’s review of the BEI report was made public in 2021 and includes some details from the investigation, but the official report has not been released to the public or the family. The attorney general’s review concludes that “Ms. Chantel Moore’s death, although deeply regrettable, was as a result of her being severely impaired by alcohol and, combined with her actions, specifically exiting her residence brandishing a knife.”

But the toxicologist who was part of the initial investigation, James Wigmore, testified on May 18 that, based on Moore’s blood-alcohol level, she likely would not have been noticeably impaired.

Wigmore told the jury that Moore had 137 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milligrams of blood at the time of her death, which he said is equivalent to having consumed about five beers. Wigmore said based on her size and other factors, he wouldn’t expect that she was slurring her speech or staggering, and it was “unlikely she would show drunkenness or intoxication.”

DISTRESSING DETAILS

For the relatives of Chantel Moore, Wednesday was the first time they’d heard some of the graphic details of her death.

As pathologist Marek Godlewski recounted the injuries he discovered during the autopsy, her mother, Martha Martin, appeared to become overcome with grief.

Godlewski was describing the four gunshot wounds, a fractured leg and bruises as Martin was carried out of the courtroom, seeming too weak to walk. She could then be heard wailing from the hall.

RE-ENACTMENT

Earlier, the lead investigator for the New Brunswick Police Commission had told the jury that Moore likely could not see that Const. Jeremy Son was a police officer when she first opened her door just after 2:30 a.m. on June 4, 2020.

Moore woke from her sleep to Son banging on her window and shining a light into her apartment. Son said he shot and killed her when she opened the door and started moving towards him holding a knife.

In a recorded re-enactment of the events leading to Moore’s death, the commission’s investigator, Jean-rené Lévesque, a retired RCMP staff sergeant specializing in major crime, showed the jury how the flashlight that Son used may have temporarily impaired Moore’s vision.

In his testimony on Tuesday, May 17, Son had said he did not verbally identify himself as police when Moore answered the door. In the video shown to the jury May 18, Lévesque used the same type of flashlight Son had used on the night he killed Moore, showing that she likely could not see clearly enough to identify him.

Son had told the jury Tuesday that when facing a threat, officers are trained to “stop the threat.” Son only had his sidearm with him on June 4 and did not have a non-lethal weapon when he responded to the call to check on Moore’s safety.

Alain Lang was chief of the Edmundston Police Force at the time of the killing but has since retired. He said on the day that Son killed Moore, only one of the police force’s Tasers was working.

Lang also confirmed that the police audio recording system that is supposed to record all police interactions with civilians was broken at the time. In the absence of any recording, Lévesque said his role was also to determine if Son knew Moore had a knife before she opened the door.

Son has testified that he saw Moore grab something from the kitchen counter before she opened her door, and that when he saw her he yelled “Drop le couteau,” partly in French, a language Moore’s family says she didn’t speak.

Testimony at the inquest will continue on Thursday, May 19.