Osawe was ‘actively resisting,’ inquest hears
Officers were handcuffing brother when the fatal bullet was fired in another room
Day two of the coroner’s inquest into the death of 26-year-old Eric Osawe focused on the testimony of three officers present when he was fatally shot by police in 2010.
Eight members of Toronto Police’s Emergency Task Force responded to a request by the guns and gangs unit in the early morning of Sept. 29, 2010, to execute a search warrant at Osawe’s Etobicoke apartment. Osawe was thought to be in possession of a handgun and was a known drug dealer with a history of violence, according to Sgt. Scott Payne, the supervisor of the unit.
The team carried out a “dynamic entry” in which they forced open the door by swinging a heavy piece of metal before deploying a distraction device that emits a momentary bright light and heavy sound.
Payne said officers had just handcuffed Osawe’s brother in the living room when Payne heard a pop from the nearby bedroom, followed by calls for a medic. Osawe was shot once in the back at close range by the weapon carried by Const. David Cavanagh, a fatal shooting that an Ontario court judge later deemed accidental.
Cavanagh’s MP5 submachine-gun fired while he and three other officers attempted to handcuff Osawe. He was struck by one bullet to the spine and died within 15 seconds.
“The medic came in and immediately started working on Mr. Osawe,” Payne testified. “Because of the look on Dave’s face, I could tell he was distraught. He was looking to me, I guess as an experienced senior officer, (like) ‘What do I do?’ Nothing was said, but that’s what I gathered from it.”
Const. Andrew Bozzer had been in the room with Cavanagh, attempting to apprehend Osawe, when the gun fired. Bozzer recalled Tuesday how the two had found Osawe on his bed and that he didn’t comply when they demanded he show his hands and get on the floor. He said Cavanagh moved toward the bed in an attempt to take control. Cavanagh and Osawe engaged in a struggle that wound up on the floor, with Osawe eventually on his stomach.
“It was clear that he was actively resisting, even being assaultive,” Bozzer testified.
Bozzer said he saw Osawe’s left hand sliding under a dresser and thought he might be reaching for a gun. Bozzer then kicked Osawe’s shoulder and pinned his left knee on Osawe to secure him, as he continued to resist calls to put his hands on his back, he testified.
At that moment, with Cavanagh behind him, Bozzer heard the gunshot. The entire struggle happened in a matter of seconds, he said.
Payne said his assumption is that all members of the unit carrying guns had entered the apartment with the safety switch off, a position he feels is safest.
“When your adrenaline’s up, you don’t want to be fumbling for the selector switch. If somebody points a firearm at you, you want to be able to act right away, and a tenth of a second might mean the difference between you going home that night,” he said.
Payne said he told a distressed Cavanagh that the accidental shot could have happened to anyone on the team.
The inquest resumes Wednesday morning.