(Sherbrooke) The Sûreté du Québec policeman who shot and killed a teenager in Lac-Brome, in the Eastern Townships, says the young man clearly represented a danger to the police.
Updated yesterday at 10:24 p.m.
Joël Desruisseaux told the coroner’s inquest into Riley Fairholm’s death on Wednesday that a colleague of his had repeatedly asked the teenager to put down his gun. He added that there were no signs that the situation could be defused.
He testified that he was afraid for his colleagues and their lives and that the adrenaline was at its peak. He added that there was no de-escalation, that from the moment he set foot on the asphalt, the teenager was pointing his gun everywhere and was agitated.
The interaction between 17-year-old Riley Fairholm and SQ officers in the early morning of July 25, 2018 lasted just over a minute, before Constable Desruisseaux fired a bullet in the head. teenager, in the parking lot of an abandoned restaurant.
It has so far been learned at the coroner’s inquest that police were unaware that the teenager, shortly before he called 9-1-1 himself, had left a note for his parents announcing that he was going to commit suicide.
Constable Desruisseaux said Wednesday that the officers who responded to the call were also unaware that the weapon held by the teenager was actually an air pistol, not a handgun.
He added that he believes he was patient, that he and his colleagues tried to defuse the situation. He says he tried to repeat the order to Riley Fairholm to drop his gun, that they were threatened from the start and could have been fatally injured.
The six officers who responded that night claimed the teenager was moving erratically, shouting and sweeping the gun around him, but never pointed any of them directly.
Some of them testified that they heard Riley Fairholm say that he had been planning this day for five years.
Coroner Géhane Kamel expressed skepticism on several occasions on Wednesday that the police all seem to have heard him say this sentence, but nothing else.
She questioned the police officer Claude Charest on this subject, saying that he heard her scream without knowing what he was doing, that he could have said “help me” and that no one would have heard him.
She conceded that the situation was tense due to the presence of a weapon, but that the officers did not attempt to calm Riley Fairholm.
SQ members said they feared for their safety and the possibility that the teenager was suicidal had not occurred to them.
Officers Desruisseaux and Charest testified Wednesday that they were ready to shoot. Constable Desruisseaux estimated that 15 to 20 seconds elapsed between the time he aimed at the teen and the time he fired, adding that the parking lot was dimly lit and Riley Fairholm was wearing dark clothing.
Constable Charest said he was also ready to open fire, but his colleague did so first.
Guillaume Marion, one of the other police officers present that evening, said that many details only came to light after the fact, in particular that Riley Fairholm was a teenager.
He also contradicted the testimony of a colleague, Geneviève Racine. The day before, the latter said that the agent Marion had felt the pulse of Riley Fairholm and therefore chose not to perform resuscitation maneuvers. On the contrary, the officer said that she did not feel any and, given the head injury, concluded that the teenager was dead.
A paramedic, Brandon Rodrigue, meanwhile indicated that he had not found a pulse in Riley Fairholm, neither when he arrived at the scene nor during transport to the hospital.
Mr Rodrigue said the teenager was bleeding from the head and not breathing. He asked a first responder on site to begin CPR. However, he added that, given the injury, it was unlikely that starting resuscitation earlier would have changed the outcome.
The shooting was investigated by the Quebec Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI), and the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions subsequently decided not to lay charges.
The family of Riley Fairholm criticizes the work of the police and the BEI for their lack of transparency in this file.
Several SQ police officers must testify as part of this investigation chaired by coroner Géhane Kamel, at the Sherbrooke courthouse.