Mesic coroner’s inquest continues

We are now half way through a coroners inquest into the police shooting death of Steve Mesic. Friday, his fiancée and mother of his child broke her silence outside court — for the first time since the inquest began.

Today we heard testimony from witnesses who heard the altercation between police and Steve Mesic that day, and some of their testimony contradicts that of what officers said on the stand.

Because this inquest is designed to find the truth about how Steve Mesic died, this week we’ve heard many prespectives on what happened, and every day Steve’s fiance Sharon has been there listening to different takes on the last moments of Steve’s life.

“Emotionally, this is very, very difficult to digest and I, I feel like I’m talking about somebody else’s life.”

Sharon Dorr has listened, to the details of how the father to her child was killed. And she’s seen this video from the SIU, just after the shooting. A blue tent marks the spot where Steve lay — a shovel sits a few feet to the side: “It’s very upsetting to say the least.”

She listened to medical staff from St. Joes say how Steve, a voluntary patient, was able to sign out at 8:15am that day — to a bus driver who described Steve jumping onto the jollycut in an attempt to kill himself — and to a 911 call an hour later: “Hi, there’s a guy on the lincoln alexander expressway trying to run out to traffic, he almost ran in front of my van, and almost killed himself.”

Then to police officers who testified that they heard loud banging from the back yard, how they walked through the thick brush to find Steve Mesic inside a back yard, banging a shovel against the door. Police stood on the near side of the fence and confronted Mesic, pulling their guns, they did not know it was his back yard. And then how Mesic turned in their direction: “3-447 gin point arrest, guy has a shovel, he’s comin at us.”

But there have been some discrepancies in testimony about what happened next. Police say Mesic said nothing while they shouted commands to drop the shovel, that he quickly lifted the fence, went under, and came at then while ignoring police as they swore at him and demanded he drop the shovel: “Shots fired, shots fired!”

But a witness who lives next door said she heard an argument before the shots, and she’s certain that she heard Mesic speak: “I’m not exactly sure on whose testimonies I believe and the discrepancies that I am hearing in some of them.”

The SIU said that they did not find any damage on the back door that Steve was believed to be hitting with a shovel, nor could they find anyone who heard loud banging.

“I’m, I’m going to make my final conclusions at the end because I believe that there’s going to be some more information that comes out and maybe pulls this together and optimally find the truth.”

Saturday is the first anniversary of the Steve Mesic shooting. Sharon says that they will meet with friends and visit Steve’s grave, but she admits that given what happened this week, coupled with the time of year, tomorrow will be an emotional roller coaster.