Coroner’s inquest
How did Eric Osawe end up dead?
The family of Eric Osawe has been “shattered into pieces” since the 26-year-old man was fatally shot by police during an early morning raid in 2010, a coroner’s court heard Monday.
Nearly six years after Osawe was shot once in the back at close range by Toronto police Const. David Cavanagh, a mandatory coroner’s inquest began probing the circumstances of his death inside his west-end Toronto apartment — a fatal shooting an Ontario court judge deemed accidental.
Just after 1 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2010, Cavanagh’s MP5 submachine gun fired while he and three other officers attempted to handcuff Osawe during the execu- tion of a search warrant inside Osawe’s apartment. Osawe, struck by one bullet to the spine, died within 15 seconds of being shot.
In a written statement read in coroner’s court Monday, Osawe’s mother described her son as dedicated, generous and “full of love,” especially when it came to his children and his younger siblings.
Every day, she misses her son’s hugs and phone calls, Osawe’s mother said.
“A parent should never outlive their children,” she said. “It is my deepest desire that this inquest will unveil findings and causality leading to measures so that another family does not suffer the devastating damage of heartbreak that we have endured,” Magdeline Osawe wrote on behalf of herself and husband Kings Osawe.
Esther Osawe, Eric’s younger sister, told jurors in a separate statement that, since her brother’s death, news reports of other young men killed during police interactions have become difficult to hear.
“It is a continual reminder of what might have went wrong and what could have been avoided,” Esther Osawe wrote.
Alongside the death of Sammy Yatim, which led to the unprecedented conviction of Const. James Forcillo on the charge of attempted murder, Osawe’s death became one of the exceedingly rare cases in which a Toronto police officer was charged with murder for an on-duty death.
Cavanagh was highly trained member of Toronto’s elite Emergency Task Force (ETF) at the time of the 2010 shooting.
“It is my deepest desire that . . . another family does not suffer the devastating damage of heartbreak that we have endured.” MAGDELINE OSAWE MOTHER OF ERIC OSAWE
Cavanaugh was initially charged with manslaughter following an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). In 2012, the Attorney General’s office and the SIU opted to upgrade the manslaughter charge to second-degree murder.
But at the preliminary hearing in early 2013, Ontario Court Justice Michael Block found Osawe’s death was the result of Cavanaugh’s weapon accidentally discharging.
Block found there was no evidence Cavanagh carelessly used his firearm, and tossed the murder charge, ruling that the evidence pointed to an accident. That decision was later upheld by Superior Court Justice Michael Quigley and, in 2014, the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Coroner’s inquests are held not to assign blame but to probe circumstances surrounding a death and formulate recommendations to prevent future fatalities. The inquest into Osawe’s death will hear from 15 witnesses and is expected to last two weeks.
In an address to the jury Monday morning, coroner’s counsel Michael Blain said the inquest was expected to hear evidence supporting the possibility Cavanagh’s gun accidentally fired, including a demonstration of how the weapon could go off without someone pulling the trigger, possibly by objects getting into the trigger guard and causing the gun to misfire.
Blain walked the five members of the jury through the sequence of events they are likely to hear during the inquest, including that Toronto police obtained a search warrant for Osawe’s home believing they would find drugs and possibly a gun.
The inquest heard Monday that officers later found a handgun in the cushion of a couch, alongside cocaine and marijuana, scales, numerous cellphones and dime bags.
Blain said the ETF squad was called to perform a “dynamic entry” into Osawe’s home — break down the door with a ram, flood the apartment with eight officers, and gain control of the occupants, enabling officers from the Toronto police Guns and Gangs unit to perform the search.
When the ETF officers entered Osawe’s room, he was “combative” and not complying with instructions to put his hands up, according to Blain’s summary of the evidence expected to be heard from witness officers who will testify.
Officers were concerned about the possible presence of a gun, particularly as Osawe failed to put his hands up.
When the four ETF officers attempted to gain control of him and arrest him, Osawe was shot in the back, Blain said.
The inquest is likely to hear that at the time of the shooting Cavanagh was using both his arms to grapple with Osawe, and that his gun was dangling off a harness that is attached to his vest, Blain said.
“We expect (the officers) to say they had their hands on Mr. Osawe . . . so nobody had their finger on the trigger.”
The inquest also heard from John Weiler, use-of-force instructor at the Ontario Police College, where all police officers in the province receive basic training.
Weiler said some of the training officers receive on use of force, including that when using a gun, an officer’s finger should not go on the trigger unless he or she has made the decision to shoot. If the officer has drawn the gun but not made the decision to shoot, his or her finger should be along the side of the gun.
If the gun is out but the decision has not been made to shoot, Weiler said, officers are taught to strive toward ensuring they are aiming it away from possible harm. However, “it’s impossible to always point the gun in a safe direction,” he said.
The inquest continues Tuesday.