Use-of-force expert testifies in Mesic inquest

A coroner’s jury took a field trip Tuesday. They’re looking into the circumstances surrounding the police shooting death of 45-year old Steve Mesic. And now they’ve seen for themselves where he died.

First thing this morning, we heard from the top training officer from Ontario Police College about what kind of training police get in use of force. For example, the fact that police are trained to keep shooting until the threat is over. We know that just over a year ago 45-year old Steve Mesic was shot nine times police, just outside of his home on Hamilton mountain. He had walked out of a psychiaric hospital and walked into traffic in an apparent suicide attempt and then was confronted by two officers who didn’t know he lived there.

They have said that they felt they had no other option but to shoot because Mesic was advancing on them with a shovel and they were stuck in deep foliage. So today, the jury took a field trip to the area where Mesic died to get a better feel for those circumstances. We can’t show you their faces but later the lawyers involved also walked the scene to see the bush where the officers were standing and the fence that Mesic crawled under when he left his own property. And also just the state of the foliage in that area.

We spoke to two lawyers about what could come out of this inquest.

Bernard Cummins is the lawyer for Constable Michael McLellan: “On behalf of my client, a police officer; he’s a professional, he’s always looking to better his role and become a better officer. So if there are recommendations that assist him in his day to day activities, he’d certainly be open to that.”

Anita Szigeti is a lawyer representing the Empowerment council: “We haven’t heard any evidence about whether or what emotional disturbance training the Hamilton police provides might have a little bit of evidence but there’s always room for improvement. In this case, we’re hoping to provide some specific training that my client does provide, together with the Toronto Police Service, direct training between consumers of mental health services and front line officers to help them understand what goes through the minds of individuals and how fearful they are during these interaction with uniformed officers. All of those kind of this are helpful and hopefully will form the basis of some recommendations going forward.”

Szigeti said that Toronto Police work directly with her organization. And that program has been very successful in helping to de-escalate situations between police and people who are mentally ill. It’s a great program that has shown success and she would like to see that expand across the province.