Teen shot dead was ‘frantic’
Witness watched Quinn MacDougall interaction with police before death
“Frantic” is how witness Harvey Van De Ban described a young man running from police with a knife in hand in the moments before his death.
“To me, it seemed like he was scared,” he said.
Nineteen-year-old Quinn MacDougall was shot dead by police outside a Mountain townhouse complex on April 3, 2018, about 10 minutes after he called police to report a man with a firearm near his Caledon Avenue townhome.
A 10-day inquest into his death began Feb. 28.
Van De Ban, one of five people to testify Monday, said he watched the scene unfold from his beige Toyota Sienna minivan. The father was driving his two kids home from school when police activity forced him to stop his car on Caledon Avenue.
Van De Ban also said it appeared officers “were trying to contain the situation and also frantic, but in a different way.”
One of those officers was Const. Brittany Gingrich, a patrol officer who attended the call near Mountain Secondary School.
Gingrich testified on Monday that she initially responded to a weapons call, but determined upon arrival “it might be a mental-health issue.”
When Gingrich first arrived on scene, MacDougall was speaking calmly with officers. But his behaviour quickly changed.
MacDougall “pulled a knife” while she was briefing recently arrived officers, she said. She began to move “fairly quickly” toward MacDougall and Const. Ognjen Laka, who was backing away in the direction of his cruiser.
She and the other officers yelled at MacDougall to put the knife down.
He then turned and moved toward a parked SUV.
Gingrich testified the knife came within inches of a window just closed by plain-clothed officer Det. Const. Marcello Felice, but did not hit the glass.
MacDougall then began to run north, she said. Officers followed on foot.
“I know that there is a school north and Mr. MacDougall seems to be in crisis and I’m not sure what he’s going to do,” she said.
At some point, MacDougall changed direction and headed back toward the SUV and toward the sidewalk in front of the townhouse complex.
Gingrich said she deployed her Taser. At the same time, she heard three gunshots. MacDougall dropped the knife and fell to the ground.
Gingrich testified that Hamilton police are trained to deal with people in distress. But MacDougall “didn’t stop moving,” making it difficult to use de-escalation techniques, she said.
“At no point did he stop moving and communicate,” Gingrich testified.