Officers cross-examined about Mesic shooting

A coroner’s inquest into the police shooting of Steve Mesic is in it’s third day, and today the court heard from both officers who fired shots.

Lots of tension in the Hamilton courtroom Wednesday as the Mesic friends and family were sitting beside members of the Hamilton police force while they heard testimony from both officers who fired shots that day.

Constable Michael McLellan, who was the second officer on the scene, said not a day goes by when he doesn’t think about that shooting.   When asked if he was second guessing himself, he said emphatically, No!

McLellan described, as he got on the scene second, he followed Constable Kevin Farrell towards the back yards and the row of houses where Steve Mesic would eventually be shot. He also talked about how Steve Mesic was trying to break into a house when they saw him with a shovel. He eventually then turned towards them, got through a fence and made his way towards police, which is when they opened fire.

He describes how he shot 5 times and Mesic was spun around by one of his shots and that one bullet, the final bullet that came out of McLellan’s gun, may have gone into Mesic’s back.

Now also today, we heard the cross-examination for Constable Kevin Farrell, who called this a classic case of suicide by cop although he pointed out he is not in a position as an expert to determine if this was a case of suicide by cop or not.

There were two discrepancies pointed out in cross-examination. Most notably being the two different stories that came from the notes of Constable Kevin Farrell and what came afterwards in testimony this week.

The initial notes had said that after Mesic was shot, he walked a couple of steps before collapsing. He testified here that Mesic walked 30 to 35 feet before he collapsed. When pressed on that issue today, Farrell said that those were one and the same.