CITY POLICE SHOOTING
Downtown death sparks inquest calls
One minute and three seconds. That’s what Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit examined — the one minute and three seconds from the time Windsor police saw Matthew Mahoney carrying a butcher block of knives on Wyandotte Street on March 21, 2018, to the radio call, “Shots fired. Shots fired.”
And when the SIU, which investigates cases of death, serious injury and sexual assault involving police, determined what happened using CCTV surveillance footage, witnesses and other evidence, it asked one question: Was the fatal police shooting justified?
Ten investigators spent 10 months investigating the incident, resulting in a 20-page report.
“They (police) used force. It was justified. They were in lawful execution of their duty, and they had to take a life. That’s what happened here,” said Windsor Police Service Chief Al Frederick, summarizing the report Friday. Schizophrenia, the illness at the centre of the confrontation, was never mentioned. That’s why there should be an inquest.
“We’re still considering wheth- er an inquest is to be called,” Dr. Rick Mann, regional supervising coroner for southwestern Ontario, said Friday.
The coroner’s office investigates all non-natural deaths and decides whether to call an inquest.
“We are looking at the facts surrounding the death and have not yet made a decision as to whether or not an inquest will be called,” Mann said. “The decision will be made after reviewing all the information.”
Key factors include whether there is a public interest and whether a jury could make recommendations that could prevent another death in similar circumstances.
This confrontation had been coming for 20 years. For 20 heartbreaking, exhausting years, Mahoney struggled with schizophrenia. For 20 years, his family and friends tried to help him. But a fragmented health care system that lacked resources, laws that hinder treatment and families and stigma that can discourage seeking and accepting help got in the way.
Many people wanted to help. The problem was they couldn’t. An inquest could examine much more than the one minute and three seconds that left Mahoney laying on the pavement, shot seven times, dead at 33. It could examine how he ended up zigzagging slowly and aimlessly along the middle of a downtown street at 8 a.m., clutching that butcher block of knives.
The officers who responded to the call had been trained to deal with mentally ill people, Frederick said. Was that training enough? Is there a better way to approach a mentally ill person in distress? Should it be only the police or should there be a mental health expert accompanied by police?
An inquest could look at that, too.
If an inquest is called, “we’re going to be looking into all aspects,” said Mann. Mahoney’s family, which is calling for an inquest, would likely be part of determining the scope.
Frederick supports an inquest unequivocally.
“The family has said over and over again the health system failed their son and brother. When our officers are on the street, and we’re dealing with someone with acute mental illness or homelessness, any type of addiction, that’s not our job,” he said. “Somebody else has failed in providing proper care for that person.” There was CCTV footage of the entire incident, starting when Mahoney left his apartment building with the knives — except for a critical 54 seconds that included the shooting, the SIU noted.
What happened to the 54 seconds? That’s a good question. Why didn’t the two officers who pulled their triggers agree to be interviewed by the SIU or submit their notes to the SIU? Why does the Police Act allow them to not cooperate with an SIU investigation? That’s another good question.
But the real question is this: Mahoney was smart, funny and caring. His family loved him, and his friends liked him. How did he end up charging two police officers, slashing at them with a knife, “raging,” “wild,” “like a linebacker,” according to multiple witnesses?
How did two experienced officers, trying repeatedly to talk to him, then commanding him to stop, one Tasering him and both finally retreating from him, end up fighting for their lives, one on his back after falling and being slashed in the hand?
“Both officers will suffer trauma, because of the stress of this incident, for the rest of their lives,” said Frederick, who met with them Thursday. “This was a life-and-death situation.” That wasn’t the Matthew Mahoney his family and friends knew, and it’s not how he should be remembered. He wasn’t a criminal. He was ill. It shouldn’t have come to this.
This was about a lot more than one minute and three seconds. We need to know the rest.
We are looking at the facts surrounding the death and have not yet made a decision as to whether or not an inquest will be called.