Chief speaks, but Carby questions remain

Family member says Special Investigations Unit told her police-shooting victim had mental health issues

Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans publicly commented for the first time on Thursday regarding the fatal police shooting of Jermaine Carby, while still leaving crucial questions unanswered.

Chief among those questions is: Why did a police officer ask Carby to identify himself during a traffic stop in Brampton on Sept. 24, 2014, seeing as he was not the driver of the vehicle, but rather the passenger?

“I am unable to answer that because we have not completed our Administrative Review,” Evans told the Star in an email.

Evans must report her findings, and any action taken, to the Peel Police Services Board within 30 days. Under the Police Services Act, the board “may” make that report available to the public.

Ontario’s police watchdog said Tuesday that Carby gave his name and date of birth to the officer, who then learned through a police database that there were outstanding warrants against him in British Columbia.

Carby’s cousin La Tanya Grant said her family was told by the Special Investigations Unit that the officer who asked Carby to identify himself also learned through the Canadian Police Information Centre database that Carby had mental health issues.

(Toxicology reports later showed Carby had antidepressants in his system that night.)

The situation quickly degenerated, according to Special Investigations Unit director Tony Loparco, and more officers arrived at the scene. Carby, who had exited the vehicle and was apparently wielding a knife at police, was shot dead by an unnamed officer. Loparco ruled there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges.

Evans’ response comes as Carby’s family is beginning to learn more this week about his final hours, while highlighting what they say are important discrepancies, and as the Peel police union fires back at Loparco for what its president describes as “inflammatory” language regarding a police officer removing a knife from the scene.

Loparco lashed out in his report at an unnamed officer who said he removed a knife from Carby’s body after he had been shot, placed it in a brown paper bag and gave it to his sergeant, who delivered it to an SIU investigator “several hours” after the shooting.

“Peel Regional Police recovered the knife at the scene to safeguard against the loss; seized it to preserve evidence and placed it in a brown paper bag for delivery to the SIU investigators as per procedure,” Evans said, adding she did not feel it was necessary to name the officer pending the review.

Peel police have refused to provide any information about the officer, including his name, number of years on the force, whether he is still employed by Peel police and if he is facing disciplinary action.

Although Evans refers to the delivery of the knife as procedural, Loparco described the officer’s actions in his report as “ill-advised conduct (that) has cast a pall over the integrity of the SIU’s investigation.”

Peel Regional Police Association president Paul Black told Loparco in a letter obtained by the Star that the knife was seized “in good faith” and that Loparco’s comment about it being delivered “several hours” after the fact was “misleading.”

“Most of those hours and minutes were derived waiting for the SIU forensic investigators to arrive,” he said. “Again, press release commentary that sheds an unexplained and incorrect light on police actions creates an air of mistrust amongst our membership with the SIU.”

The SIU did not return a request for comment regarding the letter.

Carby’s cousin Grant said that Loparco and SIU investigators told family members during a five-hour meeting on Wednesday that while Carby’s DNA was found on the knife, his fingerprints were not.

Grant said Loparco said the knife was handed over to SIU investigators at around 5 a.m. on Sept. 25, about seven hours after Carby was shot and five hours after the SIU arrived on scene. SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudon declined to comment on Grant’s statements, as Carby’s death may be the subject of a coroner’s inquest. (The coroner’s office told the Star that their investigation continues, and no decision has been made on an inquest.)

“The story has a lot of discrepancies,” said Grant. “It doesn’t sit well with me at all.”

Grant said her family was told by the SIU that the officer who asked Carby to identify himself also learned through the Canadian Police Information Centre database that Carby had mental health issues, and that toxicology reports showed he had antidepressants in his system that night.

Grant claims that the officer who asked Carby to identify himself did not tell the other officers who arrived, including the one who shot Carby, that her cousin had mental health issues.

There is also the issue of the unnamed driver of the black Jetta in which Carby was the passenger. He is unknown to Grant and her family; she said the driver knew Carby for10 years.

He is described in Loparco’s report as the only civilian witness to have actually seen Carby holding a knife in his hand as he approached officers. (Other civilian witnesses further away from the scene said they heard officers shout “drop the knife.”)

Evans said the driver was interviewed by Peel police after speaking with SIU investigators, but was not arrested. Loparco said in his report that the car was pulled over because the licence plate was dangling and obscured, and the headlights were off, although the plate is clearly legible in footage viewed by the Star.

Grant said her family wants to speak to the driver, but the SIU will not turn over his identity. With files from Wendy Gillis