Family was on the way as police fired
A relative of Michael Eligon was minutes away from picking him up at hospital on Feb. 3 before she encountered police tape and learned the tragic news that he had been shot by police, the Star has learned.
The daughter of Eligon’s foster mother was in the car to pick him up from Toronto East General Hospital after he’d been in for three days of observa- tion, his foster mother said Friday.
“I was talking to him on the phone that very morning,” Joyce Jones, 85, told the Star. “He called me three times that morning. At 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock. She (her daughter) saw the police cars and all the commotion.” Eligon, 29, was shot at about 10:15 a.m.
Jones, who lives in Mississauga and raised him from age12 to18, didn’t know exactly why he was being held. The hospital “never told me,” she said.
People deemed a threat to themselves or others can be held against their will for a 72-hour psychiatric assessment.
The shooting inspired a protest Friday evening by about 70 people outside police headquarters. “We’re here because we’re sick and disgusted that Michael was shot by police as if he were a rabid animal,” said one of the group’s organizers, Doug Johnson Hatlem.
He said police turned the incident on quiet Milverton Blvd. into a nightmare far worse than whatever hallucinations Eligon may have been suffering.
A person close to the family, who wished to remain anonymous, said in a telephone interview “we always knew (Eligon) wasn’t in his right mind, that he was a little bit ill.”
Jones, who has three children of her own with husband Harold, 83, said Michael was one of dozens of foster children she raised through thick and thin over 25 years. What hasn’t been explained is how he came to be wandering around the neighbourhood before his family arrived.
While Jones was speaking with the Star, a foster son entered the home and told Jones the family had decided not to speak to the media and he wanted to obey their wishes.
Jones declined to say anything further, and the reporter was asked to leave.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating the circumstances that led to Eligon being shot to death on the quiet eastend street in the Danforth and Coxwell Aves. area, clad only in a hospital gown, socks and holding two pairs of scissors.
Earlier, Eligon had an encounter with a convenience store clerk, whose hand was slightly cut while trying to shoo Eligon out. From there, he ended up in a backyard a few blocks from the hospital. Almost a dozen Toronto police officers arrived, shooting Eligon three times in the shoulder and chest after he didn’t respond to shouted commands to put down the scissors.
Afuneral was held Wednesday at Brampton Memorial Gardens, where Eligon’s father, Michael Sr., was among four pallbearers. His sister, Tinisha Stephens, gave the eulogy.
Eligon attended St. Martin Secondary School in Mississauga, but his foster parents lost touch with him for some time after he turned 18. At one point, he fathered a son.
He lived for a while in an apartment on Dufferin St. near King St. Two years ago, he faced charges including sexual assault against an 18-year-old girlfriend, but was acquitted.