Even though Riley Fairholm had left messages for relatives and had reported himself to 911, the teenager in crisis shot dead by the Sûreté du Québec in Lac-Brome in July 2018 was not looking to die under the police bullets, concludes the coroner, Me Géhane Kamel. In her investigation report made public on Wednesday, she calls on Public Security to improve police training to intervene with people in crisis.
Posted at 2:34 p.m.
Updated at 3:42 p.m.
“Although representations have been made to this effect, I do not accept the thesis of suicide by police officer which was presented to me by certain witnesses”, writes the coroner following her public inquiry conducted last June in Sherbrooke. .
The facts date back to July 25, 2018, when an emergency call made to 911 at 1:21 a.m. accurately described an armed white man, alone, on foot, screaming on Knowlton Road towards Cowansville. . About twenty minutes later, six police officers locate Riley Fairholm in the parking lot of a disused restaurant. The 17-year-old “waves a weapon in all directions, up and down, and sweeping the air from left to right, among other things in the direction of the police” and refuses to let go, despite several requests to do so , says M.e Kamel in his report. A policeman fires, hitting Riley with a bullet in the head.
“I have no doubt that the police feared for their lives” and that they “acted as taught to the ENPQ [École nationale de police du Québec] “, writes M.e Kamel, stressing however that “the police intervention lasted less than two minutes”.
After citing reports from coroners Jean Brochu and Luc Malouin on people in crisis who lost their lives during police interventions (Mario Hamel, Alain Magloire, Pierre Coriolan), Mr.e Kamel in turn emphasizes the training of police officers.
” According to Guide to police practices, police officers must requalify annually for the use of a firearm. This requalification is entirely appropriate. But what about negotiating with people in crisis? “, she argues.
It therefore recommends that the Ministry of Public Security “implement annual training as soon as possible for all police forces to be able to intervene with people in crisis”.
The ministry is analyzing the recommendations to respond to them, the new Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, said in an emailed statement. “Our police are working with all partners to put in place tools to better deal with mental health problems during police interventions,” said the minister, who offers his “deepest condolences to the family.”
Seven of the coroner’s ten recommendations target the Department of Public Security. In particular, she offers him to offer training to emergency service dispatchers to “detect calls from a person in a suicidal crisis and gather as much information as possible”.
And since the device held by Riley was in fact an air gun (which the police officers, posted at a distance, did not know before firing), Me Kamel recommends to “implement awareness campaigns on the danger posed by the possession of compressed air weapons”.
“The Last Stone”
This “fatal meeting with the police” was only “the last stone”, however, believes the coroner.
Despite “significant distress, constant suicidal risk and all signs of major depression”, as well as “suspected comorbidities”, including bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) in the years preceding the tragedy, “it became apparent that the professionals who succeeded one another with the young man will not follow up to check how Riley is doing either”, denounces Me Kamel.
The coroner asks the ministries of Education and Health and Social Services (MSSS) to improve their communications.
And after hearing the psychologist who followed Riley denounce “the lack of English-speaking psychologists in the anglicized region of the Eastern Townships”, she also recommends that the MSSS “respond to the needs of English-speaking clients » in mental health care.