Hamilton police adopt 5 of 8 Chinnery inquest recommendations
Barton Street resident was 19 when police shot and killed him in 2011
Hamilton police will adopt five of the eight recommendations made to them in the Andreas Chinnery inquest.
An inquest into the death of the 19-year-old man, who was shot by police in his apartment in2011 yielded 18 recommendations in total.
They ranged from tighter controls on young people’s marijuana use to police lapel cameras.
Chinnery was shot and killed by a Hamilton police officer on Feb. 2, 2011 during a possible psychotic episode brought on by daily marijuana use.
Officers were responding to a 911 call about yelling and smashing noises in Chinnery’s Barton Street East apartment when he opened the door wielding a bat. They ordered him to drop the bat and when he did not, shot him twice.
Officers had feared that someone inside the apartment was in danger, based on callers’ reports of what sounded like “screaming at a female.” Officers later discovered he was home alone.
On Thursday, the police services board adopted a report from the service outlining its responses to the eight non-binding recommendations directed at them. They have agreed to adopt five: increased dispatch training to ensure clear information is relayed;
make youth workers aware of police youth programs;
educate young adults on the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST);
investigate use of officer lapel cameras (police say a feasibility study is actively underway);
use this case for police training (police say there “may be opportunities to reflect on lessons learned” in this case — though they maintain that it evolved extremely quickly and left no room for de-escalation).
Two of the other recommendations, they say, were already in place: reviewing use of force with people in crisis for better training, and investigate how to increase positive interactions with youth.
One recommendation was outright rejected: scenario training on disarming techniques for weapons other than guns.
Such an approach would “create an unsafe environment for both the public and police. While hand-tohand combat techniques are included in police training, it is not the best practice approach when encountering weapons that may cause serious bodily harm or death.”
Board chair Lloyd Ferguson asked if the Chinnery confrontation might have been handled differently today, now that all front line officers are armed with Tasers.
Chief Eric Girt said it would be “irresponsible … to armchair quarterback four years later.”
“It’s always a tragedy when someone loses their life like this,” Girt said. “Can it happen? Yes. Do we want it (to happen)? No.”