Date set for inquest into 2018 Hamilton police shooting death of Robyn Garlow

A date has been set for an inquest into the death of a 30-year-old woman who was shot and killed by Hamilton police nearly seven years ago.

Robyn Garlow was fatally shot on Oct. 20, 2018 after two officers responded to reports of a woman with a knife at an apartment building on King Street East near Wellington Street.

According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), police arrived to find Garlow standing on a bed in a second-floor unit with the knife in her right hand.

Police ordered her to drop the knife, but she refused and then brought it up to her neck and started cutting her throat. One of the officers attempted to taser Garlow twice to stop her from hurting herself, but it didn’t work.

The SIU said Garlow then held “the knife over her head and was screaming incomprehensively as she lunged aggressively at the officers.”

WATCH MORE: Woman identified as victim in police shooting in Hamilton

One of the officers pointed his handgun at her and repeatedly told her to drop the knife, according to the SIU. Garlow then charged towards police and the officer fired four gunshots, two of which struck her.

Paramedics rushed her to hospital, where she later died.

The SIU concluded nearly a year later that the officer was justified and there were no grounds to charge him in connection with the fatal shooting.

Ontario’s ministry of the solicitor general announced Thursday that a coroner’s inquest into Garlow’s death will begin on March 31.

The four-day inquest will examine the circumstances surrounding her death and hear from approximately five witnesses.

READ MORE: Hamilton police begin wearing body cameras