The police officer who shot young Riley Fairholm in 2018 in Lac-Brome said Wednesday that he had been “patient” before shooting him, as the level of danger seemed great to him and his colleagues.
“We were afraid for the lives of our colleagues and our own lives, the adrenaline was at its maximum,” said Sûreté du Québec police officer Joël Desruisseaux during the coroner’s hearings into the death of Riley Fairholm in Sherbrooke.
The young man, then in a state of crisis, had gone out walking in the middle of the night with an air pistol. The police said he was waving it in all directions when they spotted him in the parking lot of an abandoned building.
Three cars were there. In the center one, Sergeant Wallace McGovern would have unsuccessfully asked the young man to drop his weapon. It was then that Argent Desruisseaux shot Fairholm, fatally hitting him in the head.
In front of the coroner, the policeman maintained that it was the only thing to do and that it would have even been justified to shoot before. “I gazed 15-20 seconds before firing. I find that I have been patient,” he said, pointing out that his team had tried to defuse the situation even though they were exposed to fire “from the start”.
As to why he aimed for the head instead of another part of the body, Constable Desruisseaux maintained that he was aiming for the upper body, from the waist to the head, in the manner of what he was told. learned in his training. The head was easier to make out in the dark because the youth was dressed in black, he said.
Earlier this week, the teenager’s mother, Tracy Lynn Wing, criticized the police for firing too quickly and not taking the time to speak with her son.
It took just over a minute after they arrived on the scene before either of them pulled the trigger.
The police in the dark
The police all testified that they did not know that the young man was suicidal and that he was a minor. They were also unaware that his weapon was an air rifle, harmless compared to an ordinary pistol.
They also didn’t realize that the man who had notified 911 of a potential shooter in town was Fairholm himself.
One after another, the officers said they heard the teenager shouting in English: “I’ve been planning this for five years. On Wednesday, Constable Desruisseaux mentioned that he also repeatedly shouted “no” in English.
The day before, the hearing had revealed that the police and the young man had had no dialogue during the altercation. Sergeant McGovern spoke to him over a loudspeaker asking him to drop his gun. He was in his car then and couldn’t hear if Fairholm was answering him.
During the interrogation of Constable Desruisseaux, Coroner Kamel was also surprised that at no time did the police try to establish contact or communicate with Fairholm before shooting.
However, again, the policeman who shot him maintained that time was running out and that he had to pull the trigger before one of his colleagues was injured.
The coroner has been examining the death since Monday, which has already been the subject of an investigation by the Office of Independent Investigations, at the end of which no charges have been brought against the police.
Hearings are to continue at least until June 20. Mental health professionals must testify to the psychological state of the young man in the coming days. We will also hear from experts in the use of force since Géhane Kamel seeks in particular to know if the police are adequately trained to intervene with people in crisis situations.