Chinnery inquest set to start in March
Coroner to review case of teenager fatally shot in encounter with Hamilton police in 2011
A mandatory inquest into the death of an 19-year-old man who died after being fatally shot in an encounter with Hamilton police in February 2011 has been scheduled to start March 7.
The announcement comes after the inquest was postponed in January 2014 because of legal arguments.
A statement from Dr. David Eden, regional supervising coroner for inquests, said the inquest will examine the events surrounding Andreas Chinnery’s death and the jury can make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.
The inquest is expected to last two weeks and to hear from 20 witnesses, the statement said.
An officer was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the province’s Special Investigations Unit in May 2011.
According to the SIU, police went to Chinnery’s Barton Street East home after complaints he was damaging his apartment, yelling and making threats.
The SIU said Chinnery was acting erratically and met two officers at his front door with a baseball bat. He started to swing the bat at one officer, who fired two shots at him.
However, the Chinnery family has contested this version of the events, including whether he had a bat.
Chinnery’s father Rob told The Spectator in 2012 he doesn’t have high hopes for the inquest, arguing that he believes most people in Hamilton don’t care what hap- pened to his son.
“This type of incident wouldn’t have happened in a nicer area,” he said at the time.
Chinnery grew up in Hamilton and went to Sherwood Secondary School until he left in 2009, when he was in Grade 11, and began taking alternative school courses.
The inquest will begin at 9 a.m. on March 7 at the John Sopinka Courthouse on Main Street East.
Dr. William J. Lucas will preside as inquest coroner and Michael Blain will be counsel to the coroner.