SIU probing fatal police-involved shooting at OPP detachment

When police officers are involved in incidents where someone has been seriously injured, dies or alleges sexual assault, the Special Investigations Unit has the statutory mandate to conduct independent investigations to determine whether a criminal offence took place.

Pair of officers should've been enough in Babak Saidi arrest

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 11:52 am

Pair of officers should've been enough in Babak Saidi arrest, inquest hears

Questions about training around handling people with mental health issues

The sergeant on duty the day an eastern Ontario man was fatally shot during an attempted arrest at the Ontario Provincial Police detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., told the inquest into his death that two officers should've been enough to handle him.

Babak Saidi, 43, died at the Morrisburg OPP detachment on Dec. 23, 2017, after an attempted arrest during his mandatory weekly check-in — a condition of a 2014 conviction.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the officer who shot Saidi.

On Friday, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry OPP Sgt. Charlene Davidson told the inquest she still believes the two general patrol officers working that day should've been able to execute the plan for Saidi's arrest.

When pressed by Prabhu Rajan, the inquest's counsel, about what went wrong, Davidson pointed to Saidi's behaviour — specifically, that he became so combative when he left the detachment after being told he was arrested.

The inquest has heard that Saidi told the officers he wanted to inform his father, who was parked outside, of his arrest. In the ensuing scuffle, Saidi was shot five times.

Davidson told the inquest she'd learned Saidi was to be arrested by "at least two officers," and said she'd been warned in an email from a constable that he was violent and didn't like police.

She said she spoke to that constable and trusted the judgment of her colleagues — including Sgt. Dave Budzinski, who testified earlier this week — that an arrest at the detachment would be appropriate.

Davidson said she wasn't at the detachment that morning, as she was attending a wake for a Hydro One worker who'd died in a helicopter crash. She said she advised the officers on her shift to check the cautions on Saidi's file and read the description of the complaint that led to the arrest: that he had threatened a woman with a knife after she left a flyer at his property.

Stationing a third officer at the door of the detachment's lobby, Davidson said, may not have prevented Saidi's death and could have resulted in an officer being caught in the crossfire.

Davidson also pushed back on Rajan's suggestion that the mandates of the OPP's emergency response team or its tactics and rescue unit could be adjusted so that they're involved when police try to arrest someone with a history of violent behaviour.

She said if that were made a policy, it would render general patrol officers useless.

"If we're not capable and competent to affect an arrest on a dangerous person, why are we out there?" she said.

'More responsibility' for mental health issues, officer says

Though Davidson didn't provide a suggestion for how the OPP could do a better job in handling people in mental distress, she did say she would support a recommendation for more medical and social support in the community.

She said police have had "more responsibility" for people with severe mental health issues who are living in the community because of "de-institutionalization" over the course of her 28-year career.

Paul Champ, the lawyer representing the Saidi family, asked Davidson about her training in dealing with mental health issues.

While she echoed Budzinski's testimony that it was integrated into OPP recertification training scenarios, Davidson said she didn't have a specific recollection, nor did she remember the specific 2012 module listed on her training record.

Davidson said she has attended sessions run by social agencies in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry that address mental health concerns, but that training isn't widely received by officers.

During his testimony, Budzinski could not recall any specific mental health training courses or modules, either from 2017 or in the last year.

The coroner's inquest is charged with finding recommendations to improve how police handle arrests of people who are potentially violent or have mental health issues. It's scheduled to continue next week.

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Babak Saidi was shot 5 times at close range, expert tells in

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 11:58 am

Babak Saidi was shot 5 times at close range, expert tells inquest

Police watchdog found no reasonable grounds to lay charges against officers involved

Babak Saidi was shot at close range five times by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) constable during an attempted arrest in 2017, a forensic expert told the coroner's inquest into Saidi's death.

Saidi, 43, died at the OPP detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., on Dec. 23, 2017, after an attempted arrest during his mandatory weekly check-in — a condition of a 2014 conviction.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the officer who shot Saidi.

Liam Hendrikse, a forensic ballistics consultant who works across North America, told the inquest Monday the video and forensic evidence available to him limited what he could say about which gunshots caused which wounds and their order.

The beginning of the struggle between Saidi and the two officers was recorded on videos, shown at the inquest, in which it appears Saidi is wrestled to the ground, but continues to resist.

The struggle continues out of frame and there is no sound when the shots are fired.

Hendrikse pointed to the impact of fired bullets in the snow, off a brick wall and the ejection of cartridge casings to draw some of his conclusions about when shots were fired.

He told the inquest Saidi advanced, apparently on his knees toward an officer who had his back to a wall. The officer fired two rounds, piercing Saidi's right arm and left thigh.

As the struggle continued, Saidi was shot three times in the back, Hendrikse said.

Once with the gun less than two feet away from him, another time with the gun's muzzle against him and the final time as the officer got up, he said.

The shots were fired over the course of about six seconds, according to his analysis.

Dr. Charis Kepron, the forensic pathologist who conducted the postmortem, told the inquest last week three of Saidi's gunshot wounds would've been fatal individually as they pierced major organs in his chest.

Trainers discuss use of force

On Monday, the inquest heard in greater detail what kind of training police officers in Ontario receive about the use of force — including their firearms.

Mike Girard, an instructor at the Ontario Police College, said officers are trained on pulling out their guns in close quarters and during grappling to avoid it being taken by a subject.

Girard said officers are also trained to aim for the centre of the upper torso because it's a bigger target, there's less risk of a bullet passing through and striking someone else and it's a quicker way to stop or slow someone.

Officers are taught to stop firing once they've stopped a threat of serious bodily harm or death, he said.

However, Girard also explained the Ontario Use of Force Model, which is used as training aide, includes lethal force as a response to the threat of serious bodily harm or death.

Girard suggested the model could be improved with a more explicit mention of de-escalation and examples of de-escalation tactics.

He said the vast majority of police interactions do not involve force or violence and a more neutral term should be considered for the model.

Sgt. Daniel Loney, an OPP trainer, said officers are required to go through a re-certification training process every year that includes courses on firearms, batons, conducted energy weapons, pepper spray and judgment training, which explores several policing scenarios.

Loney said that on three-year cycles, officers are given a 90-minute course touching on de-escalation and mental health issues, and that those topics are revisited in training scenarios every year.

The coroner's inquest is charged with finding recommendations to improve how police handle arrests of people who are potentially violent or have mental health issues.

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Constable involved in fatal arrest attempt apologizes to Bab

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:04 pm

Constable involved in fatal arrest attempt apologizes to Babak Saidi's family

Police watchdog found no reasonable grounds to lay charges

One of the police constables involved in the fatal arrest of Babak Saidi started her testimony at the coroner's inquest into his death with an apology to his family.

The inquest is examining the circumstances that led an officer to shoot the eastern Ontario man at an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment in 2017.

OPP Const. Meghan Shay turned to Saidi's mother and sister and made a brief, emotional statement.

"I'd just like to say that I'm sorry," she said Tuesday. "I can't imagine how hard it would be to lose a loved one in that manner and I'm very sorry."

Saidi, 43, died at the OPP detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., on Dec. 23, 2017, after an attempted arrest during his mandatory weekly sign-in — a condition of a 2014 conviction.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against Const. Luc Sarao, the officer who shot Saidi five times. He is still expected to testify at the inquest.

Shay said she was off work for 14 months because of that investigation and she no longer works on the front line. She now works in identification and forensics, gathering evidence at crime scenes.

She said the long wait for the investigation and delays to the coroner's inquest because of COVID-19 have not helped with healing.

"There hasn't been a lot of closure," she said.

1st arrest plan had roles for all involved, constable says

Shay told the inquest she had signed Saidi into the Morrisburg detachment a handful of times prior to the arrest attempt.

She said there was "unwritten" guidance that two officers should be present because he'd been antagonistic with police in the past, though she didn't recall having issues with him even when she signed him in alone.

Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry OPP were seeking to arrest Saidi after receiving a complaint he'd threatened a woman with a knife after she left a flyer in the mailbox of his rural home on Dec. 20, 2017.

Shay was involved in the first arrest attempt, which saw four officers sent to a different Alcoholics Anonymous meeting than the one Saidi attended. AA meetings were another of Saidi's release conditions.

That arrest plan included assigned roles for each of the constables, with Shay having the responsibility of handcuffing him and her regular shift partner assigned to communicating with Saidi.

She told the inquest that level of planning was normal for the people she worked with regularly in her platoon, but agreed that didn't happen three days later — when the Christmas schedule meant she wasn't working with her usual platoon or sergeant.

Tom Sharkey, a use of force expert and former staff sergeant with Toronto police, told the inquest that the AA arrest plan was a "sensible" way to deal with a subject who was known to have a pattern of violence and hostility toward police.

He also said he would've stuck to using four officers and possibly called for a specialized team such as a tactical unit for an arrest of a person such as Saidi, even at the detachment, because of his history and that he was known to have a knife.

Sharkey said he felt the way the struggle ensued during the arrest, where Saidi presented a threat, justified the use of lethal force by Sarao.

Both Shay and Sharkey are expected to continue their testimony at the inquest Wednesday.

Inquest counsel Uko Abara said the purpose of the inquest is not finding fault, but finding recommendations to avoid similar situations for both civilians and the police.

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'One person was shot five times and two officers were trauma

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:05 pm

'One person was shot five times and two officers were traumatized'; Inquest into police shooting death continues

An inquest into the shooting death of an eastern Ontario man continued on Tuesday in Kanata.

Babak Saidi was shot dead while police were trying to arrest him outside an OPP detachment in Morrisburg.

“One person was shot five times and two officers were traumatized. Something did go wrong,” said Elly Saidi, Babak’s sister.

The 43-year-old was mentally ill and considered violent by police, but to his family he was more than his struggles.

“My brother was a beautiful person,” said Elly Saidi. “Some people just know him as the guy who had the mental health illness, but he was much more than that, he was generous, loving, and a very pure hearted man.”

On the day he died, Saidi was at the detachment for a mandatory check-in relating to a previous charge.

When police tried to arrest him, an altercation started.

One of the officers involved in the arrest, who did not fire the shots, gave a tearful testimony on Tuesday.

“I’m sorry to the family. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose a loved one in that manner and I’m very sorry,” said the OPP Constable.

The officer said she wasn’t aware of a threat assessment that was being done on Saidi and only knew he could be violent from a flag on the Canadian Police Information System.

“What we have been trying to learn about is the type of training that the officers receive, and trying to understand the context in which this death occurred in terms of processes and protocols,” said Prabhu Rajan, the inquest lawyer.

An SIU report reveals that after the altercation with Saidi started, a male officer was hit in the head with a police radio. The officer then tried to hit Saidi to restrain him, but that didn’t work. Next, he used a Taser, which also had no effect on Saidi. The report indicates that Saidi grabbed the Taser and it was discharged again. The OPP officer then took out his firearm and while Saidi continued to come at him, shot five bullets, striking him each time.

“There’s been some major inefficiencies in how to do an arrest, for an individual who has a mental health illness,” said Elly Saidi.

A police sergeant involved in training police testified Tuesday and said officers are trained in de-escalation every three years. The sergeant said officers complete about two hours of mental health training annually.

Ontario’s police watchdog investigated the shooting and decided to lay no charges against the OPP officer.

The inquest aims to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future.

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Officer who shot Babak Saidi tells inquest he was afraid for

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:26 pm

Officer who shot Babak Saidi tells inquest he was afraid for his life

Police watchdog found no reasonable grounds to lay charges

The constable who shot and killed Babak Saidi outside the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., told a coroner's inquest Wednesday he feared for his life when Saidi took his Taser during the attempted arrest in 2017.

Luc Sarao, who is now a detective constable with the street crime unit, said he'd only heard of Saidi the morning of Dec. 23, 2017, when colleagues working a holiday schedule mentioned that Saidi could be unpredictable.

They learned by email that two officers would attempt to arrest Saidi during his weekly, mandatory check-in at the detachment because of allegations he'd threatened a women with a knife.

During the struggle that ensued in that arrest, Sarao shot Saidi five times at close range.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against Sarao.

The inquest is looking for recommendations to improve police responses to people who may be violent or be suffering from mental illness.

Arrest planned day of, constables say

Sarao said he and Const. Meghan Shay, the other officer who was involved in the arrest, had formulated their plan in the moments after they both arrived at the detachment. They'd read relevant files on Saidi in the police computer system earlier that morning.

Both officers said they had not been specifically assigned to the task.

Sarao said their plan was for it to seem like a "natural" sign-in for Saidi, in an attempt to avoid the situation escalating, and they would inform him of his arrest rather than trying to physically control him first.

While there was some discrepancy in both constables' testimony about who spoke first, Sarao said he did inform Saidi he was under arrest and instructed him to turn around.

In both constables' testimony, Saidi became defensive, but each said he calmed down when they told him neither was the lead investigator on the file and there was a process that needed to happen.

But before he was handcuffed, Saidi said something about telling his father and made his way from the office to the lobby.

Then the arrest began to escalate, the constables told the inquest.

Officer concerns over leaving building

While they would later learn Saidi's father was waiting outside with a neighbour in a car after dropping Saidi off, the inquest heard neither officer was certain who was in the vehicle and were concerned by the potential new threat.

Sarao said he tried to control Saidi by grabbing his left arm inside the lobby, but the two ended up crashing through the door and the struggle on the ground outside rapidly escalated.

He said Saidi bit his arm through two layers of clothing, so Sarao delivered three punches to the back of Saidi's head to get him loose. While Sarao was able to get on top, he said the pair of officers were concerned Saidi was grabbing for their guns.

"At that point, I have zero control on this man, he feels extremely strong and it's not going well," Sarao said.

He said Saidi grabbed the radio off his vest and struck him above his left eye and since Saidi had become assaultive, he resorted to his conducted-energy weapon, a Taser X2.

Because they were too close, Sarao said he had to try to incapacitate him by first firing the prongs at him and shocking him at a third point with the Taser itself. But when he fired it, he also felt the electrical charge.

Shay also testified to feeling a shock and breaking the wire because one of the prongs had caught on her sleeve.

Sarao said Saidi wrestled the Taser away by rolling onto his belly, raising the concern that he could use the second cartridge in the Taser against the officers.

Sarao said Saidi's assaultive behaviour had become a threat on his life at that point. He said as he drew his weapon Saidi rose off his back and swung the Taser back at him and touched his gun — that's when Sarao fired his first shots.

"I was fearful for my life," he told the inquest.

Even after being shot in the right arm and left thigh, Saidi was able to grab onto an unzipped open pocket on the front of Sarao's vest where he kept a pocketknife, so the officer fired three more times, he said.

Difficult to train for feeling you could die, officer says

Sarao, who served 10 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, including tours in Afghanistan, and had three years experience as an OPP officer at that point, said that was the first time he'd fired his gun on someone.

Sarao, like Shay, opened his testimony with an apology to the Saidi family, though he also acknowledged there was little he could say that would make a difference.

In his testimony, Sarao agreed more officers may have been able to get better control of Saidi during the arrest, but at the time he'd felt he and Shay could handle it.

More information to make decisions could also be useful to officers, he said. Flags for violent and unpredictable behaviour are common in the police database and he said something "above and beyond" might need to be considered.

Earlier Wednesday, Shay said she had concerns about an arrest plan with only two officers after being involved in a failed plan to arrest Saidi at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that had involved four.

She said she felt reassured when she saw reports where Saidi cooperated with a single officer to come into custody, but added it may have been "naive" in retrospect.

Shay said she had difficulty remembering large portions of the incident and described getting "tunnel vision."

She said while police training attempts to prepare officers for high stress, it's difficult for trainers to prepare someone for feeling like they could die, their partner could die and the public could be at risk.

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Officer who shot Babak Saidi tells inquest he was afraid for

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:26 pm

Officer who shot Babak Saidi tells inquest he was afraid for his life

Police watchdog found no reasonable grounds to lay charges

The constable who shot and killed Babak Saidi outside the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., told a coroner's inquest Wednesday he feared for his life when Saidi took his Taser during the attempted arrest in 2017.

Luc Sarao, who is now a detective constable with the street crime unit, said he'd only heard of Saidi the morning of Dec. 23, 2017, when colleagues working a holiday schedule mentioned that Saidi could be unpredictable.

They learned by email that two officers would attempt to arrest Saidi during his weekly, mandatory check-in at the detachment because of allegations he'd threatened a women with a knife.

During the struggle that ensued in that arrest, Sarao shot Saidi five times at close range.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against Sarao.

The inquest is looking for recommendations to improve police responses to people who may be violent or be suffering from mental illness.

Arrest planned day of, constables say

Sarao said he and Const. Meghan Shay, the other officer who was involved in the arrest, had formulated their plan in the moments after they both arrived at the detachment. They'd read relevant files on Saidi in the police computer system earlier that morning.

Both officers said they had not been specifically assigned to the task.

Sarao said their plan was for it to seem like a "natural" sign-in for Saidi, in an attempt to avoid the situation escalating, and they would inform him of his arrest rather than trying to physically control him first.

While there was some discrepancy in both constables' testimony about who spoke first, Sarao said he did inform Saidi he was under arrest and instructed him to turn around.

In both constables' testimony, Saidi became defensive, but each said he calmed down when they told him neither was the lead investigator on the file and there was a process that needed to happen.

But before he was handcuffed, Saidi said something about telling his father and made his way from the office to the lobby.

Then the arrest began to escalate, the constables told the inquest.

Officer concerns over leaving building

While they would later learn Saidi's father was waiting outside with a neighbour in a car after dropping Saidi off, the inquest heard neither officer was certain who was in the vehicle and were concerned by the potential new threat.

Sarao said he tried to control Saidi by grabbing his left arm inside the lobby, but the two ended up crashing through the door and the struggle on the ground outside rapidly escalated.

He said Saidi bit his arm through two layers of clothing, so Sarao delivered three punches to the back of Saidi's head to get him loose. While Sarao was able to get on top, he said the pair of officers were concerned Saidi was grabbing for their guns.

"At that point, I have zero control on this man, he feels extremely strong and it's not going well," Sarao said.

He said Saidi grabbed the radio off his vest and struck him above his left eye and since Saidi had become assaultive, he resorted to his conducted-energy weapon, a Taser X2.

Because they were too close, Sarao said he had to try to incapacitate him by first firing the prongs at him and shocking him at a third point with the Taser itself. But when he fired it, he also felt the electrical charge.

Shay also testified to feeling a shock and breaking the wire because one of the prongs had caught on her sleeve.

Sarao said Saidi wrestled the Taser away by rolling onto his belly, raising the concern that he could use the second cartridge in the Taser against the officers.

Sarao said Saidi's assaultive behaviour had become a threat on his life at that point. He said as he drew his weapon Saidi rose off his back and swung the Taser back at him and touched his gun — that's when Sarao fired his first shots.

"I was fearful for my life," he told the inquest.

Even after being shot in the right arm and left thigh, Saidi was able to grab onto an unzipped open pocket on the front of Sarao's vest where he kept a pocketknife, so the officer fired three more times, he said.

Difficult to train for feeling you could die, officer says

Sarao, who served 10 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, including tours in Afghanistan, and had three years experience as an OPP officer at that point, said that was the first time he'd fired his gun on someone.

Sarao, like Shay, opened his testimony with an apology to the Saidi family, though he also acknowledged there was little he could say that would make a difference.

In his testimony, Sarao agreed more officers may have been able to get better control of Saidi during the arrest, but at the time he'd felt he and Shay could handle it.

More information to make decisions could also be useful to officers, he said. Flags for violent and unpredictable behaviour are common in the police database and he said something "above and beyond" might need to be considered.

Earlier Wednesday, Shay said she had concerns about an arrest plan with only two officers after being involved in a failed plan to arrest Saidi at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that had involved four.

She said she felt reassured when she saw reports where Saidi cooperated with a single officer to come into custody, but added it may have been "naive" in retrospect.

Shay said she had difficulty remembering large portions of the incident and described getting "tunnel vision."

She said while police training attempts to prepare officers for high stress, it's difficult for trainers to prepare someone for feeling like they could die, their partner could die and the public could be at risk.

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Officer who shot Babak Saidi questioned about previous incid

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:35 pm

Officer who shot Babak Saidi questioned about previous incident involving police

Police watchdog found no reasonable grounds to lay charges in fatal 2017 shooting

The police officer who fatally shot Babak Saidi told a coroner's inquest he didn't know of any serious injuries in a 2014 incident, which lawyer Paul Champ suggests affected Saidi's response during the altercation that led to his death.

Champ, who is representing Saidi's family at the inquest into his death, said Thursday Saidi might have feared for his life when officers touched him during the arrest attempt at the Morrisburg OPP detachment on Dec. 23, 2017, ultimately leading to a physical altercation.

Champ was questioning Det. Const. Luc Sarao, who was a constable at the time and who previously testified he feared for his own life when he fired five shots at Saidi.

Sarao was investigated by Ontario's police watchdog, which found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges.

Sarao and Const. Meghan Shay took up the assignment to arrest Saidi during one of his weekly check-ins, a condition of a previous conviction.

'Like a switch that went off'

Sarao told the inquest they planned to bring Saidi into the detachment as they normally would during a check-in to try to avoid escalation or surprise. Saidi co-operated until he said he wanted to tell his father about the arrest, according to Sarao.

Sarao said he offered to tell Saidi's father, but Saidi left the sign-in room and began to walk "with purpose" out of the detachment.

Shay told the inquest it was "like a switch that went off" when Sarao touched Saidi's arm to try to get him to stop. Sarao told the inquest he agreed there was a sudden change.

The inquest was shown security camera video of a rapidly escalating struggle on the ground in front of the detachment doors.

On Wednesday, Sarao explained his response to Saidi's behaviour in terms of training he received about Ontario's Use of Force Model — responding as Saidi's behaviour went from actively resisting arrest to life-threatening.

Sarao said he punched Saidi after the officer was bitten on the forearm, resorted to his Taser after Saidi struck him with a police radio, then drew his gun when Saidi gained control of the Taser.

On Thursday, Champ cross-examined Sarao. He suggested Saidi bit at first because he may have feared Sarao was choking him when the officer tried to bring Saidi to the ground with his arm across his chest, close to his neck.

Potential effects of 2014 arrest

Champ also mentioned a 2014 incident when Saidi called police to his property because he was concerned about a trespasser, but ended up being taken into custody under the Mental Health Act, injured and hospitalized in the ICU for weeks.

Sarao said he'd reviewed the 2014 occurrence report prior to Saidi's arrest, which reportedly said Saidi had wielded a machete while in a "drug-induced psychosis" but that Saidi had not been seriously injured.

Champ said Saidi had co-operated with police when they asked him to put down the machete.

Sarao said based on his training as an OPP officer, plus additional training about mental health crises he received in 2015, he didn't perceive Saidi as exhibiting signs of mental health issues on the day of the arrest attempt.

He did say he is not a mental health expert.

The coroner's inquest has previously heard that OPP officers receive training on mental health through their annual "block training" re-certification, in the form of some of the scenarios they practise.

The inquest also heard front-line officers receive a 90-minute de-escalation lecture with a mental health component on a three-year cycle as part of that training.

They are taught to recognize signs of mental health issues such as mania, delusions, hallucination, depression and suicidality for the purposes of making an arrest under the Mental Health Act, an OPP trainer told the inquest.

Saidi's family has said he suffered from schizophrenia and hopes the inquest will result in recommendations to improve how police handle people with mental health issues.

The inquest is expected to close Friday.

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Inquest calls for OPP officers to get annual mental health t

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:46 pm

Inquest calls for OPP officers to get annual mental health training

Saidi family say they hope recommendations would save someone else's life in future

The coroner's inquest into the death of an eastern Ontario man who was fatally shot at an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment on Friday issued 16 recommendations to improve how police handle people at high risk of violence or who may have mental health issues.

Babak Saidi, 43, died at the OPP detachment in Morrisburg, Ont., on Dec. 23, 2017, after an attempted arrest during his mandatory weekly check-in — a condition of a 2014 conviction.

The arrest was based on a complaint from three days earlier, where Saidi allegedly threatened a woman who dropped a flyer off at his property with a knife.

Ontario's police watchdog investigated and found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the officer who shot Saidi.

Among the recommendations the family of Babak Saidi sought and the inquest's jury agreed on are dedicated mandatory mental health training to be delivered as part of the annual re-certification process for officers and re-allocating more training time to de-escalation techniques during annual use of force certifications.

The recommendations also call for improvements to how officers are trained to plan arrests for individuals who may pose a higher risk — including identifying factors that could complicate an arrest, such as mental health issues, unpredictability, past incidents with police or a history of violence.

Some of the training is specifically directed at sergeants, including leadership training and their role in the planning, briefing and execution stages of arrest.

Review Use of Force Model

The inquest jury also called for updates to Ontario's Use of Force Model, which was published in 2004.

While the inquest heard the model is currently under review, jurors used their recommendation to call for the Ministry of the Solicitor General to ensure de-escalation is emphasized as a "foundational principle" and to recommend renaming the model to better reflect the range of tools and techniques officers can use in different situations.

Speaking after the recommendations were released, Babak Saidi's sister Elly told CBC News her hope for some semblance of closure would come from the recommendations being implemented urgently.

"It will always leave a gaping hole, but it is my wish and my hope that through the inquest that was held for him, even if one of the recommendations will be implemented, that perhaps it will save another life — even if it saves one life," she said.

She said the need for updated training was apparent in how trainers and officers could remember how much time was devoted to each use of force option, but couldn't give even a ballpark figure for time spent on mental health training.

She said she's concerned the recommendations will collect dust along with the recommendations from other inquests.

While lawyers representing the Ministry of the Solicitor-General told the inquest they supported the majority of recommendations proposed in closing arguments, there were some where they withheld support.

Hoursa Yazdi, the lawyer from the Ministry of the Solicitor-General, said those recommendations described changes already underway or parts of training that already existed in some form.

The jury also called for improvements on how police manage and share information about subjects — including how officers can access reports and expertise from the OPP's Threat and Behavioural Analysis Team — and research into creating a system that would assign a numerical measurement of risk when individuals are flagged for violence.

Saidi's sister said seeing the flags on her brother's police file during the inquest made her feel like the system had failed him, given he didn't receive resources to address those issues.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/b ... -1.6434678
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Babak Saidi inquest recommends better 'arrest planning' for

Postby Thomas » Thu May 05, 2022 12:48 pm

Babak Saidi inquest recommends better 'arrest planning' for people with mental illness

Family of man killed during altercation with an officer at the Morrisburg OPP detachment still struggles with an arrest that escalated rapidly

After nine days of evidence and testimony into the in-custody death of Babak Saidi at the Morrisburg Ontario Provincial Police detachment on Dec. 23., 2017, his family still struggles with an arrest that escalated rapidly to lethal force, questioning why the officer fired five shots, including three into Saidi’s back.

“The evidence was thin on why the officer felt it necessary to shoot three times in the back, including one time while standing over Mr. Saidi on the ground,” Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ, who represented Saidi’s family through last month’s coroner’s inquest into his death, said.

The inquest does not find fault, but is instead tasked with drafting a list of recommendations to avoid similar incidents, which calls for more comprehensive “arrest planning” strategies and increased training for cases involving mental health issues.

Saidi, 43, had a history of run-ins with police in the Seaway Valley community and local officers knew he could be “volatile,” according to testimony heard last week.

Saidi was shot five times by Const. Luc Sarao as he and fellow OPP Const. Meghan Shay tried to arrest him inside the station that day during a weekly check-in.

The officers informed him of new charges from an incident on his property three days prior, where Saidi had confronted a woman leaving flyers in the mailbox of his rural home and held a knife to her throat.

It was “like flipping a switch” during the arrest, Shay testified, as Sarao reached out to stop Saidi from walking out of the station’s “controlled environment.”

Saidi bit hard into Sarao’s arm and the officer punched Saidi in the back of the head as the two men grappled and fell to the floor.

Saidi ripped the police radio from Sarao’s vest and struck him across the forehead with it, wrestling a Taser from Sarao’s hands after the officer fired it at close range, striking Shay, his fellow officer.

Sarao regained control, stepped back and drew his gun. He fired two shots as Saidi made a “swinging” motion toward the weapon, striking Saidi in the shoulder and the leg, As Saidi continued to fight, grabbing Sarao by the vest and dragging him to the floor, the officer fired three more times.

Sarao was cleared of wrongdoing by the province’s Special Investigations Unit.

“It was a very dynamic situation and we appreciate that, at one point, the officer felt that his safety was threatened and use of force was necessary,” Champ said Monday. “But there remained questions around when that threat had reasonably ended. With an inquest, the best that we can hope for is that the recommendations for more training will improve how officers respond in future.”

The inquest closed Friday with a list of 16 recommendations drafted by the civilian jury along with lawyers representing Saidi’s family, Ontario’s solicitor general and lawyers for the two OPP officers involved in the shooting.

The first of those recommendations calls on the OPP to provide regular training to officers on “the planning and approach to arrests of individuals in potentially higher risk circumstances… (and) how to identify possible factors that could complicate an arrest, such as possible mental health issues, unpredictability, past incidents with police and violent history.”

Police should provide “dedicated mandatory mental health training,” and the panel agreed the OPP should develop a mandatory training course for sergeants on their leadership role in the “planning, briefing and execution stages of an arrest.”

Champ said the inquest determined there was “totally deficient arrest planning” for someone who was known to have mental health issues and could be volatile. Saidi had been hospitalized in 2014 following a physical altercation with police, Champ noted, and was arrested under the Mental Health Act.

“He was also reporting into the police by phone… It would have been so easy to simply call him in for the arrest, which they do in many cases,” Champ said. “The OPP had a casual approach (on Dec. 23. 2017) that had tragic results.”

The inquest panel also called for guidance and training on “circumstances where it may be appropriate to contact a subject to ask them to attend a police detachment for the purpose of effecting an arrest.”

The provincial use of force model (last updated in 2004) should be revised as soon as possible, the panel advised, to “explicitly include an emphasis on de-escalation as a foundational principle.”

The Solicitor General should also consider renaming the “use of force” model “to better reflect the range of tools and techniques available to officers,” the panel advised.

“It is our ardent desire and wish that, having gone through such a difficult process emotionally and mentally, the OPP and Solicitor General’s office will take these recommendations seriously and act to implement these changes,” Babak Saidi’s sister Elly Saidi said in an email.

“As the jury has recommended, implementing mandatory regular training in mental health awareness and de-escalation training is critical. The jury’s recommendations help to address this deficiency,” she wrote.

“It is our hope that Babak’s death is not in vain, but rather it brings attention to the importance of mental health awareness and appropriate daily action in our public safety institutions.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/babak-sa ... al-illness
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