Man, 31, dead, police officer in hospital after interaction
A 31-year-old man is dead and an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer is in hospital following an interaction Sunday morning in Fergus.
Now, the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating.
Police were called to a home on Belsyde Avenue E., in Fergus for a domestic call at 11 a.m. Sunday and officers negotiated with a man.
"At 1:38 p.m., there was an interaction with OPP officers and the man. OPP discharged a firearm and the man was pronounced dead at the scene," the SIU said in a release.
An OPP officer was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The SIU investigates cases where police conduct may have caused death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at an individual. The SIU said in this case, four investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned.
Anyone with information about the case, including video evidence, is asked to contact the SIU at 1-800-787-8529 or through the SIU website.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchene ... -1.6142145
Inquest rules Fergus man's death a homicide after he was shot by OPP
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Inquest rules Fergus man's death a homicide after he was shot by OPP
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'Guns are not the answer and now my brother is dead': Family speaks out after man killed during interaction with police
FERGUS - The family of a 31-year-old man killed during an interaction with police in Fergus on Sunday are speaking out, calling for justice and better supports for those struggling with mental health.
Alysha Bunyan says her brother, Mathias Bunyan, was shot and killed after an interaction with provincial police.
"Guns are not the answer and now my brother is dead," she said.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says OPP were called to a home on Belsyde Avenue East in Fergus for reports of a domestic disturbance around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
"There was an interaction with the OPP officers and the man, he was armed with two knives," said Kristy Denette, a spokesperson for the SIU. "The OPP discharged a conductive energy weapon followed by a firearm and the man was pronounced dead at the scene."
An OPP officer was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Mathias's family said he was struggling with mental health issues, adding they were planning to have an intervention with him this week to get him help.
"Today we were supposed to take him to have him put on a 72-hour hold in hopes to get more help for him for mental health," said Rachel Labrie, Mathias's sister. "Instead I watched my brother being carried out in a body bag."
Now, the family is looking for answers and say better support systems are needed for those struggling with mental health.
"The police had a different choice to make and it was not to discharge three bullets into a mentally ill human being's body," Labrie said.
Mathias's family described him as kind, artistic and brilliant.
"He saw beauty in everything," Bunyan said.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/guns-are-n ... -1.5549632
Alysha Bunyan says her brother, Mathias Bunyan, was shot and killed after an interaction with provincial police.
"Guns are not the answer and now my brother is dead," she said.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says OPP were called to a home on Belsyde Avenue East in Fergus for reports of a domestic disturbance around 11 a.m. on Sunday.
"There was an interaction with the OPP officers and the man, he was armed with two knives," said Kristy Denette, a spokesperson for the SIU. "The OPP discharged a conductive energy weapon followed by a firearm and the man was pronounced dead at the scene."
An OPP officer was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Mathias's family said he was struggling with mental health issues, adding they were planning to have an intervention with him this week to get him help.
"Today we were supposed to take him to have him put on a 72-hour hold in hopes to get more help for him for mental health," said Rachel Labrie, Mathias's sister. "Instead I watched my brother being carried out in a body bag."
Now, the family is looking for answers and say better support systems are needed for those struggling with mental health.
"The police had a different choice to make and it was not to discharge three bullets into a mentally ill human being's body," Labrie said.
Mathias's family described him as kind, artistic and brilliant.
"He saw beauty in everything," Bunyan said.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/guns-are-n ... -1.5549632
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Fergus man killed by police was suffering from mental health crisis, says family
Mathias Bunyan was a beloved brother and son with three sisters and a mother who knew him as a smart and gentle eccentric who marched to the beat of his own drum.
The Bunyan family is close but Mathias had been pulling away as he suffered a downward spiral in his mental health that ended with his death.
Although he hasn’t been officially identified by Wellington OPP or the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), two of Mathias Bunyan’s sisters identified him as the 31-year-old shot and killed by police at his apartment in Fergus on Sunday.
A press release from the SIU states OPP received a call for a domestic disturbance around 11 a.m. and negotiated with a man before an “interaction with OPP officers” which led to him being shot and declared dead at the scene.
The statement said a police officer was also taken to hospital with injuries but when reached for clarification, the SIU declined to elaborate on the injury.
Wellington OPP declined to comment on this story and deferred all inquiries to the SIU, which investigates incidents involving police and civilians that leads to serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault.
Bunyan’s sister Kimberley, who preferred to not use a last name because of her line of work, said in a phone interview that her brother was not a violent person and was a victim of a systemic problem of police interactions with those in mental health crisis.
“He’s been suffering for a while now, it’s progressively gotten worse and a lot of stuff came to light last week,” Kimberley said.
Rachel Labrie, another sister of Bunyan’s, explained the previous week he had been found outside in the middle of the day disoriented and unsure of where he was despite living in the area his whole life.
“He was lost and completely out of it and didn’t know anything that was going on,” Labrie said.
Labrie said it was through the kindness of a stranger, a woman whose door he scratched at, he was helped by being taken to hospital by police.
Labrie said he unfortunately couldn’t be held and chose to leave the hospital.
“My family had been in contact with the Canadian Mental Health Association and we were planning to do the intervention yesterday (Monday) and have him committed for 72 hours,” Kimberley said.
This intervention did not happen as he had a fatal encounter with police on Sunday.
Kimberley said it’s not entirely clear what happened, stressing they are largely in the dark based on the nature of SIU investigations, but heard from neighbours what is alleged to have happened.
From what the family understands, Kimberley said around 7 a.m. on Sunday morning neighbours at the apartment building heard Bunyan yelling and screaming in the third person.
The landlord checked on him and didn’t believe Bunyan when he said he was okay.
“My brother has lived in the same apartment for over 10 years, the community knew him, the landlords knew him and they’ve never seen him like that before,” Kimberley said.
The police were called and attended the apartment but Bunyan again stressed he was fine and refused to answer the door.
Kimberley said she believed they may have been unsure if he was alone but stressed he had just his pets with him and was only a danger to himself.
It is not known publicly what escalated the situation which led to Bunyan being shot but the family said an IMPACT crisis team should have been sent to talk to him instead of just the police, who Bunyan feared. IMPACT teams include mental health crisis workers.
Labrie said when the family heard about police activity at Bunyan’s apartment building, she called 911 and asked for a wellness check because they were concerned he was involved.
She said she also relayed his mental health treatment from days prior to the operator.
“There should have been that IMPACT team and some special people there to help my brother because he would be laying in a bed right now had they taken other measures,” Labrie said.
Kristy Denette, SIU spokesperson, said by email preliminary information showed Bunyan had two knives and a conductive energy weapon was discharged prior to the shooting. The SIU otherwise had no further details to share about this incident while they investigate.
Labrie said regardless if her brother had a weapon, he could have been immobilized in a different way.
“He could be in a hospital bed, strapped to a bed right now getting the mental help he needed,” Labrie said.
“I don’t believe that several officers have to put three bullets in someone’s chest when they’re dealing with someone’s mental health.”
Labrie stressed more funding and training is needed for officers to deal with mental health crises to avoid another family experiencing a loss.
Kimberley said seeing negative social media comments about this has made her realize society as a whole needs help.
“People forget this is our brother, my mother lost her son, three sisters don’t have their brother anymore,” Kimberley said.
“People are so insensitive and they’re so willing to jump on the side of the law and if there’s a problem, there’s a problem and now we’re going to stand up. We couldn’t save my brother, it was too late for us to save him, but fuck everybody else, we’re going to save other people.”
https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/ ... ly-4229844
The Bunyan family is close but Mathias had been pulling away as he suffered a downward spiral in his mental health that ended with his death.
Although he hasn’t been officially identified by Wellington OPP or the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), two of Mathias Bunyan’s sisters identified him as the 31-year-old shot and killed by police at his apartment in Fergus on Sunday.
A press release from the SIU states OPP received a call for a domestic disturbance around 11 a.m. and negotiated with a man before an “interaction with OPP officers” which led to him being shot and declared dead at the scene.
The statement said a police officer was also taken to hospital with injuries but when reached for clarification, the SIU declined to elaborate on the injury.
Wellington OPP declined to comment on this story and deferred all inquiries to the SIU, which investigates incidents involving police and civilians that leads to serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault.
Bunyan’s sister Kimberley, who preferred to not use a last name because of her line of work, said in a phone interview that her brother was not a violent person and was a victim of a systemic problem of police interactions with those in mental health crisis.
“He’s been suffering for a while now, it’s progressively gotten worse and a lot of stuff came to light last week,” Kimberley said.
Rachel Labrie, another sister of Bunyan’s, explained the previous week he had been found outside in the middle of the day disoriented and unsure of where he was despite living in the area his whole life.
“He was lost and completely out of it and didn’t know anything that was going on,” Labrie said.
Labrie said it was through the kindness of a stranger, a woman whose door he scratched at, he was helped by being taken to hospital by police.
Labrie said he unfortunately couldn’t be held and chose to leave the hospital.
“My family had been in contact with the Canadian Mental Health Association and we were planning to do the intervention yesterday (Monday) and have him committed for 72 hours,” Kimberley said.
This intervention did not happen as he had a fatal encounter with police on Sunday.
Kimberley said it’s not entirely clear what happened, stressing they are largely in the dark based on the nature of SIU investigations, but heard from neighbours what is alleged to have happened.
From what the family understands, Kimberley said around 7 a.m. on Sunday morning neighbours at the apartment building heard Bunyan yelling and screaming in the third person.
The landlord checked on him and didn’t believe Bunyan when he said he was okay.
“My brother has lived in the same apartment for over 10 years, the community knew him, the landlords knew him and they’ve never seen him like that before,” Kimberley said.
The police were called and attended the apartment but Bunyan again stressed he was fine and refused to answer the door.
Kimberley said she believed they may have been unsure if he was alone but stressed he had just his pets with him and was only a danger to himself.
It is not known publicly what escalated the situation which led to Bunyan being shot but the family said an IMPACT crisis team should have been sent to talk to him instead of just the police, who Bunyan feared. IMPACT teams include mental health crisis workers.
Labrie said when the family heard about police activity at Bunyan’s apartment building, she called 911 and asked for a wellness check because they were concerned he was involved.
She said she also relayed his mental health treatment from days prior to the operator.
“There should have been that IMPACT team and some special people there to help my brother because he would be laying in a bed right now had they taken other measures,” Labrie said.
Kristy Denette, SIU spokesperson, said by email preliminary information showed Bunyan had two knives and a conductive energy weapon was discharged prior to the shooting. The SIU otherwise had no further details to share about this incident while they investigate.
Labrie said regardless if her brother had a weapon, he could have been immobilized in a different way.
“He could be in a hospital bed, strapped to a bed right now getting the mental help he needed,” Labrie said.
“I don’t believe that several officers have to put three bullets in someone’s chest when they’re dealing with someone’s mental health.”
Labrie stressed more funding and training is needed for officers to deal with mental health crises to avoid another family experiencing a loss.
Kimberley said seeing negative social media comments about this has made her realize society as a whole needs help.
“People forget this is our brother, my mother lost her son, three sisters don’t have their brother anymore,” Kimberley said.
“People are so insensitive and they’re so willing to jump on the side of the law and if there’s a problem, there’s a problem and now we’re going to stand up. We couldn’t save my brother, it was too late for us to save him, but fuck everybody else, we’re going to save other people.”
https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/ ... ly-4229844
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OPP officer who fatally shot Fergus man in crisis 'acted reasonably' and won't face charges: SIU
Officer fired at the victim to defend himself' from 'potentially deadly knife attack,' report says
An Ontario Provincial Police officer who fatally shot a man experiencing a mental health crisis in Fergus last August will not be charged, the Special Investigations Unit says.
On the morning of Aug. 15, police were called to an apartment in Fergus after neighbours reported hearing a person yelling and causing a disturbance. Before they arrived, officers were told that there had been several mental health calls connected to a man living in that apartment, beginning about 10 months before, the SIU report says.
A transcript of the 76 minutes prior to the shooting shows that the man inside the apartment repeatedly asked officers to leave — and highlights his increasing distress as they do not, as he said he worries they might kill him. Then, he approached one of the officers with two knives and was shot four times.
The SIU director says his investigation found that the officer acted in his own defence, saying he fired at the man to prevent getting stabbed.
"I am also satisfied that the shooting constituted legally authorized force," Joseph Martino said in the report. Neither the officer nor the victim are named in the report.
Two officers first entered the Fergus apartment just after noon that August day and found a 31-year-old man had barricaded the living room entrance. The man was hiding in a closet, the report says.
One of the officers reported seeing the man with two knives. The officers tried to talk to the man, asking him to get out of the closet and said they were there to make sure he was OK.
Although the officers tried repeatedly to get the man to leave the closet, he refused and instead kept asking them to leave. They sent a stream of pepper spray into the confined space, according to the report, but the man didn't move.
The scene captured by the report is one of increasing agitation: the man keeps ask police to go, tells them he has suicidal thoughts and that he thinks the officers might harm him.
But police tell him they cannot leave until they see the man and speak to him.
Officers at the scene called for help from police negotiations and the emergency response team, but were told that only members of the emergency response team — a tactical and containment unit — were available and on the way.
When the man left the closet at 1:30 p.m., the report said he moved around the bed "in a bent forward position" before he "came at" one of the officers with a knife in each hand.
An officer fired four shots at him at close range, the sounds of which are captured on a body-worn camera — and the man fell forward.
Paramedics tried to save his life on the floor of the living room, but he was pronounced dead at 1:47 p.m.
The officer who shot the man had a small cut to his left bicep, the report said.
Martino said there's "little doubt" the officer's actions were appropriate given the threat of the knives.
"Caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own."
The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency. It investigates cases where a police officer is involved in another person's death or serious injury, the discharge of a firearm at a person or an allegation of sexual assault.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchene ... -1.6285082
An Ontario Provincial Police officer who fatally shot a man experiencing a mental health crisis in Fergus last August will not be charged, the Special Investigations Unit says.
On the morning of Aug. 15, police were called to an apartment in Fergus after neighbours reported hearing a person yelling and causing a disturbance. Before they arrived, officers were told that there had been several mental health calls connected to a man living in that apartment, beginning about 10 months before, the SIU report says.
A transcript of the 76 minutes prior to the shooting shows that the man inside the apartment repeatedly asked officers to leave — and highlights his increasing distress as they do not, as he said he worries they might kill him. Then, he approached one of the officers with two knives and was shot four times.
The SIU director says his investigation found that the officer acted in his own defence, saying he fired at the man to prevent getting stabbed.
"I am also satisfied that the shooting constituted legally authorized force," Joseph Martino said in the report. Neither the officer nor the victim are named in the report.
Two officers first entered the Fergus apartment just after noon that August day and found a 31-year-old man had barricaded the living room entrance. The man was hiding in a closet, the report says.
One of the officers reported seeing the man with two knives. The officers tried to talk to the man, asking him to get out of the closet and said they were there to make sure he was OK.
Although the officers tried repeatedly to get the man to leave the closet, he refused and instead kept asking them to leave. They sent a stream of pepper spray into the confined space, according to the report, but the man didn't move.
The scene captured by the report is one of increasing agitation: the man keeps ask police to go, tells them he has suicidal thoughts and that he thinks the officers might harm him.
But police tell him they cannot leave until they see the man and speak to him.
Officers at the scene called for help from police negotiations and the emergency response team, but were told that only members of the emergency response team — a tactical and containment unit — were available and on the way.
When the man left the closet at 1:30 p.m., the report said he moved around the bed "in a bent forward position" before he "came at" one of the officers with a knife in each hand.
An officer fired four shots at him at close range, the sounds of which are captured on a body-worn camera — and the man fell forward.
Paramedics tried to save his life on the floor of the living room, but he was pronounced dead at 1:47 p.m.
The officer who shot the man had a small cut to his left bicep, the report said.
Martino said there's "little doubt" the officer's actions were appropriate given the threat of the knives.
"Caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own."
The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency. It investigates cases where a police officer is involved in another person's death or serious injury, the discharge of a firearm at a person or an allegation of sexual assault.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchene ... -1.6285082
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SIU clears OPP officer in Fergus, Ont. fatal shooting
Ontario’s police watchdog says there are no reasonable grounds to lay charges against an OPP officer following the August fatal shooting of a 31-year-old man in Fergus, Ont.
The Special Investigations Unit released its report on Tuesday following the incident that happened inside the man’s apartment on Belsyde Avenue on Aug. 15.
Officers were called to the building just after 11 a.m. for reports that a man was screaming and yelling inside his unit.
The SIU noted that the man had been struggling with mental health for a number of years and that he was of “unsound mind” at the time.
When officers entered the apartment, the SIU said the man was holding knives in each of his hands and then barricaded himself in a bedroom.
The SIU also noted that crisis negotiators were not available to attend and officers with the emergency response team would take up to an hour to arrive.
The officers on scene tried to communicate with the man and eventually entered the bedroom to find the man in the closet still holding the knives.
The SIU seized body camera video of what unfolded and reported that the officers told the man that he was not in any trouble and that the officers were there to help him.
Over the course of 30 to 40 minutes, the SIU said the man refused to leave the closet and drop the knives despite commands from police, which resulted in officers using pepper spray several times to try and get him to respond.
After spraying him one final time, the man bolted from the closet and charged at an officer with the knives, the SIU said.
The report added that man was within arm’s reach when the officer fired his gun four times. The man was pronounced dead by paramedics a short time later.
The SIU also noted that as the man charged at the officer, other officers used their stun guns, which had no effect.
“At the time he fired, the officer was no more than a metre from the complainant and his knives,” SIU director Joseph Martino said in the report.
“He might also have been cut by the complainant. On this record, caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the subject officer acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own.”
Two folding knives found in the bedroom were seized by the SIU along with three other knives found in the apartment’s kitchen.
The entire report can be found on the SIU’s website.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8449336/siu- ... ng-fergus/
The Special Investigations Unit released its report on Tuesday following the incident that happened inside the man’s apartment on Belsyde Avenue on Aug. 15.
Officers were called to the building just after 11 a.m. for reports that a man was screaming and yelling inside his unit.
The SIU noted that the man had been struggling with mental health for a number of years and that he was of “unsound mind” at the time.
When officers entered the apartment, the SIU said the man was holding knives in each of his hands and then barricaded himself in a bedroom.
The SIU also noted that crisis negotiators were not available to attend and officers with the emergency response team would take up to an hour to arrive.
The officers on scene tried to communicate with the man and eventually entered the bedroom to find the man in the closet still holding the knives.
The SIU seized body camera video of what unfolded and reported that the officers told the man that he was not in any trouble and that the officers were there to help him.
Over the course of 30 to 40 minutes, the SIU said the man refused to leave the closet and drop the knives despite commands from police, which resulted in officers using pepper spray several times to try and get him to respond.
After spraying him one final time, the man bolted from the closet and charged at an officer with the knives, the SIU said.
The report added that man was within arm’s reach when the officer fired his gun four times. The man was pronounced dead by paramedics a short time later.
The SIU also noted that as the man charged at the officer, other officers used their stun guns, which had no effect.
“At the time he fired, the officer was no more than a metre from the complainant and his knives,” SIU director Joseph Martino said in the report.
“He might also have been cut by the complainant. On this record, caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the subject officer acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own.”
Two folding knives found in the bedroom were seized by the SIU along with three other knives found in the apartment’s kitchen.
The entire report can be found on the SIU’s website.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8449336/siu- ... ng-fergus/
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SIU: no criminal charges against OPP officer who shot, killed Mathias Bunyan
MISSISSAUGA – Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino has determined a Wellington OPP officer will not be facing criminal charges in the police shooting death of Mathias Bunyan, according to a Dec. 14 SIU press release.
The 31-year-old Fergus man was shot and killed by an OPP officer on Aug. 15 at his Belsyde Avenue apartment building after police were called there by a person concerned about Bunyan’s behaviour.
The SIU, an agency which investigates police-involved deaths, serious injury, discharge of a firearm at a person or allegations of sexual assault, invoked its mandate and opened an investigation into police actions the day of the shooting.
Aside from official SIU statements — which Bunyan’s three sisters have previously disputed in speaking with the Advertiser — the family has been left in the dark about what exactly transpired that August day.
Bunyan’s death occurred a mere 24 hours before the family, including the sisters, had planned on having an intervention for their brother, who they say was dealing with complex mental health issues that didn’t need to result in his death.
“I’m not going to be naive enough to say that there couldn’t be some things that we’re going to find out that may be very hurtful or [saddening] to us, but we do just want the truth,” Bunyan’s sister Rachel Labrie previously told the Advertiser.
A publicly available SIU report, dated Dec. 10, offers the first official account of what occurred Aug. 15.
Providing a glimpse into Bunyan’s final moments, it is based on eight civilian and six officer interviews conducted between Aug. 15 and Oct. 15, over an hour of body-worn camera footage, police radio transmissions, officer notes, ambulance call reports, preliminary autopsy reports and other evidence.
An individual identified in the SIU report as “CW #1” was filling in as a property manager on Aug. 15 for the Belsyde Apartment building where Bunyan lived.
At 11:12am, the individual called police after being contacted by a tenant concerned with “yelling and screaming” in an apartment.
Two additional calls from separate individuals came in to police, one at 11:18am and another at 11:20am, reporting “yelling and screaming” and “profanities and cursing.”
Wellington OPP officers were dispatched for a “domestic disturbance call in progress” at 11:13am. The report does not identify any of the officers involved by name and states Bunyan had previously been flagged on police records for violence.
Police previously received “several mental health calls” related to Bunyan on Nov. 29, according to the report, and that information was relayed to officers.
All was quiet when the two officers arrived at Bunyan’s apartment door at 11:23am. Thirteen minutes later, an officer reported seeing Bunyan for seconds before the door was slammed closed and locked.
Additional officers began responding to the building but the report doesn’t state when. At 12:16pm, police entered Bunyan’s apartment using bolt cutters. Bunyan was initially nowhere to be seen and later retreated to his bedroom closet where he hid.
A body-worn camera was turned on one minute after entry was made into Bunyan’s apartment and a minute after that, audio recording began. Audio recording was turned off between 12:24 and 12:25pm and for eight seconds at 12:30pm.
Police requested the OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT) and asked about negotiators but none were readily available. According to body-worn camera footage, as detailed in the report, Bunyan was perturbed and didn’t believe the people in his apartment were police.
Between 12:37 – when officers began trying to persuade Bunyan to surrender and that police were there to help him – and 1:15pm, Bunyan asked officers numerous times to leave. Officers asked Bunyan numerous times to come out from the closet.
According to the report, Bunyan said he wanted to commit suicide, and told the subject officer – the one who ultimately shot and killed Bunyan – that the officer would be the one to kill him.
Between 1:15 and 1:28pm, Bunyan refused to drop a knife he claimed he had, officers had firearms and a conducted energy weapon drawn, and pepper spray was twice sprayed into the closet where Bunyan remained.
At 1:29pm, Bunyan emerged from the closet bent forward, according to the report, before standing and charging at the subject officer with a knife in each hand. Nearby officers fired their conducted energy weapons to no avail. (Four probes were located, of which one was lodged in the bedroom wall.)
Martino stated in the report there was “no more than a metre” between Bunyan and the subject officer.
Four shots were fired “point-blank” by the subject officer and Bunyan fell backwards, landing on his side before trying to sit up. He crawled from the bedroom as officers yelled at him to show his hands, stay down and not move.
“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the [subject officer] committed a criminal offence in connection with [Bunyan’s] death,” Martino stated in the report.
Martino added that, in his view, the force used was justified and there could be “little doubt” that the officer was protecting himself when he shot Bunyan.
“On this record, caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [subject officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own,” the director stated.
Although the SIU originally stated an OPP officer was taken to hospital with “serious injuries,” the Dec. 10 report stated paramedics described a “small laceration to the [subject officer’s] left bicep.”
The officer wasn’t transported to hospital by paramedics, but by another officer, and Martino did not make the determination that the laceration was caused by Bunyan.
The officer who shot and killed Bunyan declined to participate in the SIU’s investigation and refused to provide notes. He was never interviewed by SIU investigators.
Martino did point out officers could have waited for the ERT to arrive, but said “it was open for them to conclude that they could not afford to wait” the estimated 30 to 60 minutes for their arrival.
“As for the deployment of negotiators to the scene … they were an hour-and-a-half to two hours away,” Martino stated.
Bunyan ultimately collapsed and died in his living room in a pool of his own blood. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at 1:47pm.
The SIU report concludes that Bunyan “died from gunshot wounds inflicted by an OPP officer.”
Nowhere in the report is there mention of the Waterloo Wellington Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team, a specialized mental health team which Bunyan’s family believes would have made a difference.
Now that Martino has delivered his decision stating there is “no basis for proceeding with criminal charges,” the SIU investigation is complete and the file closed.
Bunyan’s family retained a Toronto law firm earlier this year after raising $11,940, as of Dec. 14, through a GoFundMe campaign.
The Advertiser reached out to Bunyan’s family members for comment on Martino’s decision, but having previously spoken at length with the newspaper, the family elected to have their lawyers speak on their behalf.
A lawyer representing the family declined to comment for this story before press deadline, saying information would be forthcoming.
https://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/si ... as-bunyan/
The 31-year-old Fergus man was shot and killed by an OPP officer on Aug. 15 at his Belsyde Avenue apartment building after police were called there by a person concerned about Bunyan’s behaviour.
The SIU, an agency which investigates police-involved deaths, serious injury, discharge of a firearm at a person or allegations of sexual assault, invoked its mandate and opened an investigation into police actions the day of the shooting.
Aside from official SIU statements — which Bunyan’s three sisters have previously disputed in speaking with the Advertiser — the family has been left in the dark about what exactly transpired that August day.
Bunyan’s death occurred a mere 24 hours before the family, including the sisters, had planned on having an intervention for their brother, who they say was dealing with complex mental health issues that didn’t need to result in his death.
“I’m not going to be naive enough to say that there couldn’t be some things that we’re going to find out that may be very hurtful or [saddening] to us, but we do just want the truth,” Bunyan’s sister Rachel Labrie previously told the Advertiser.
A publicly available SIU report, dated Dec. 10, offers the first official account of what occurred Aug. 15.
Providing a glimpse into Bunyan’s final moments, it is based on eight civilian and six officer interviews conducted between Aug. 15 and Oct. 15, over an hour of body-worn camera footage, police radio transmissions, officer notes, ambulance call reports, preliminary autopsy reports and other evidence.
An individual identified in the SIU report as “CW #1” was filling in as a property manager on Aug. 15 for the Belsyde Apartment building where Bunyan lived.
At 11:12am, the individual called police after being contacted by a tenant concerned with “yelling and screaming” in an apartment.
Two additional calls from separate individuals came in to police, one at 11:18am and another at 11:20am, reporting “yelling and screaming” and “profanities and cursing.”
Wellington OPP officers were dispatched for a “domestic disturbance call in progress” at 11:13am. The report does not identify any of the officers involved by name and states Bunyan had previously been flagged on police records for violence.
Police previously received “several mental health calls” related to Bunyan on Nov. 29, according to the report, and that information was relayed to officers.
All was quiet when the two officers arrived at Bunyan’s apartment door at 11:23am. Thirteen minutes later, an officer reported seeing Bunyan for seconds before the door was slammed closed and locked.
Additional officers began responding to the building but the report doesn’t state when. At 12:16pm, police entered Bunyan’s apartment using bolt cutters. Bunyan was initially nowhere to be seen and later retreated to his bedroom closet where he hid.
A body-worn camera was turned on one minute after entry was made into Bunyan’s apartment and a minute after that, audio recording began. Audio recording was turned off between 12:24 and 12:25pm and for eight seconds at 12:30pm.
Police requested the OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT) and asked about negotiators but none were readily available. According to body-worn camera footage, as detailed in the report, Bunyan was perturbed and didn’t believe the people in his apartment were police.
Between 12:37 – when officers began trying to persuade Bunyan to surrender and that police were there to help him – and 1:15pm, Bunyan asked officers numerous times to leave. Officers asked Bunyan numerous times to come out from the closet.
According to the report, Bunyan said he wanted to commit suicide, and told the subject officer – the one who ultimately shot and killed Bunyan – that the officer would be the one to kill him.
Between 1:15 and 1:28pm, Bunyan refused to drop a knife he claimed he had, officers had firearms and a conducted energy weapon drawn, and pepper spray was twice sprayed into the closet where Bunyan remained.
At 1:29pm, Bunyan emerged from the closet bent forward, according to the report, before standing and charging at the subject officer with a knife in each hand. Nearby officers fired their conducted energy weapons to no avail. (Four probes were located, of which one was lodged in the bedroom wall.)
Martino stated in the report there was “no more than a metre” between Bunyan and the subject officer.
Four shots were fired “point-blank” by the subject officer and Bunyan fell backwards, landing on his side before trying to sit up. He crawled from the bedroom as officers yelled at him to show his hands, stay down and not move.
“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the [subject officer] committed a criminal offence in connection with [Bunyan’s] death,” Martino stated in the report.
Martino added that, in his view, the force used was justified and there could be “little doubt” that the officer was protecting himself when he shot Bunyan.
“On this record, caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [subject officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own,” the director stated.
Although the SIU originally stated an OPP officer was taken to hospital with “serious injuries,” the Dec. 10 report stated paramedics described a “small laceration to the [subject officer’s] left bicep.”
The officer wasn’t transported to hospital by paramedics, but by another officer, and Martino did not make the determination that the laceration was caused by Bunyan.
The officer who shot and killed Bunyan declined to participate in the SIU’s investigation and refused to provide notes. He was never interviewed by SIU investigators.
Martino did point out officers could have waited for the ERT to arrive, but said “it was open for them to conclude that they could not afford to wait” the estimated 30 to 60 minutes for their arrival.
“As for the deployment of negotiators to the scene … they were an hour-and-a-half to two hours away,” Martino stated.
Bunyan ultimately collapsed and died in his living room in a pool of his own blood. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at 1:47pm.
The SIU report concludes that Bunyan “died from gunshot wounds inflicted by an OPP officer.”
Nowhere in the report is there mention of the Waterloo Wellington Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team, a specialized mental health team which Bunyan’s family believes would have made a difference.
Now that Martino has delivered his decision stating there is “no basis for proceeding with criminal charges,” the SIU investigation is complete and the file closed.
Bunyan’s family retained a Toronto law firm earlier this year after raising $11,940, as of Dec. 14, through a GoFundMe campaign.
The Advertiser reached out to Bunyan’s family members for comment on Martino’s decision, but having previously spoken at length with the newspaper, the family elected to have their lawyers speak on their behalf.
A lawyer representing the family declined to comment for this story before press deadline, saying information would be forthcoming.
https://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/si ... as-bunyan/
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One year after death of Mathias Bunyan, family calls for better mental health supports and police training
Family learning how to live again year after police shot and killed son, brother
FERGUS — At Templin Gardens on a mid-week afternoon, Sandra and Alysha Bunyan are sitting at a picnic table bordered by gardens planted with bright flowers and lush greenery.
Sparrows flitter about and passersby stroll along brick pathways through the sunshine-soaked area unaware of the weight bearing down on the mother and daughter as the first anniversary of the death of Mathias Bunyan—a son, brother, and uncle—grew ever closer.
Aug. 15 brought with it no cause for celebration.
The anniversary came and went, marked by a grief and anguish difficult even for the family to comprehend, as a mother and three sisters mourned the death of Mathias at the hands of police.
It was a little over a year ago, on that August day, that an unknown Wellington OPP officer killed Mathias by firing four rounds into the 31-year-old in his Belsyde Avenue apartment where he ultimately took his last breath.
When the Advertiser last spoke with his sisters—Alysha Bunyan, Rachel Labrie, and Kimberley Feather—they were left feeling, in their words, distraught, confused, and lost.
Their lives would become akin to a rollercoaster ride, marked by questions without answers.
In the weeks following, the sisters repeatedly invited the public into their once-private lives by speaking with reporters, at times allowing dark and revealing details about who their brother had become, intertwined with others about more joyful and innocent times, and the fondness the women felt for a sibling they describe as a “gentle giant.”
Alysha had this to say recently: “My life is now split in to two: it’s before my brother was murdered and after my brother was murdered.”
In many ways, their lives are unchanged from one year ago. The same unanswered questions remain about what exactly happened inside Mathias’ apartment, and what had gone so wrong in his life leading up to that fateful day.
There’s hope a future mandatory coroner’s inquest will bring to light more details, currently only known to police, surrounding their actions and Mathias’ subsequent death, but nobody knows when the inquest will begin.
Although healing has begun, closure at this point is unreachable. It hides somewhere in the distance; a year off, maybe two, maybe more.
However, not all progress has been stunted by the slow and inhumane churning of the legal system during the past year.
Sandra hadn’t previously been able to muster the wherewithal to participate in an interview about the killing of her son.
“I could hardly talk … I’d get a couple sentences out and then forget where I was,” she said.
And yet, here she sat: wearing oversized sunglasses, her grey curly hair fashioned, and her lips made bright with pink lipstick.
She has returned to her job at a local long-term care home, following extended time away.
Alysha, now a year older at 30, says the family is “trying to do the best we can with the circumstances that we’ve been dealt.”
“We’re still grieving every day,” she said.
The week leading up to the day Mathias was killed had been fragile.
“You have all these memories that just flood your brain, and it leaves you paralyzed and then you’re just stuck almost in this one spot,” Alysha said.
The women brought mementos of Mathias’ life, including a striped red and black touque he used to wear.
Sandra feels the fabric in her hands while talking, and bringing the touque closer to her face, she says, “Oh wow, it does smell like him, oh my God.”
“I know, it’s hard, I smell it every day,” Alysha says.
Tears begin streaming down Sandra’s face.
Mathias’ death has torn the close-knit fabric of the family.
“We’re learning how to …” Sandra begins, Alysha picking up the thought, “relive again without our brother and your son.”
“It’s tough to navigate,” Sandra says. “I am trying … but I don’t know if we’ll ever be the same together.”
Alysha—having been the first to arrive and find out her brother had been killed, the one to identify her brother in a photograph, and also to have seen photos from the Special Investigations Unit of her dead brother frozen in terror and covered in blood—was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder six months after Mathias’ death and remains on a waitlist for trauma-specific therapy over a year away.
The youngest of the siblings, Alysha was once a fun-loving, extroverted person, her sisters say.
Alysha recognizes a change in herself; leaving home is unfathomable some days.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling of emotions; you don’t know whether you want to yell, scream, or cry,” she says.
If pain easily overwhelms Alysha, her older sisters, Kimberley Feather and Rachel Labrie, who also spoke with a reporter at Templin Gardens two days later, are more stoic.
“It’s cracked our family,” Kimberley said. “We love each other and stuff, but are we the same? No, there’s a piece of us missing.”
Grief manifests differently, but feelings of guilt and helplessness are shared among the women.
In the year leading up to Mathias’ death, the family says they fought with a man they no longer recognized—both in appearance and personality—as he descended farther into what they suspect was an undiagnosed mental illness.
“There was nowhere to turn,” Kimberley said.
In the many phone calls the family made to support services, Kimberley questions why “someone didn’t help us to help him.”
The sisters describe feelings of bewilderment and helplessness and Sandra said she only received pushback when trying to help her son.
She wrestles with doubt about whether more could have been done.
“I blame him too; I’m mad at him too,” she said.
Sandra adjusts her posture and slouches, touching three bracelets around her left wrist, while looking to framed photographs of her son, where he is pictured standing upright and very much alive.
A minute of silence passes before Sandra says, “He was a decent person at one time, and he was ill.”
The family is calling for better mental health resources for families with loved ones who are struggling with mental illness, such as de-escalation coaching, how to identify and navigate triggers, and how to manage volatile relationships.
“Say to yourself: ‘This could be my family, too,’” Rachel said. “There’s got to be something done so that other families are not going to live in this nightmare.”
The family also wants to see more suitable professionals responding to mental-health related calls.
Having several officers force their way into her home, Alysha imagines, would be intimidating for her on a good day.
The sisters question why officers couldn’t have left Mathias in the closest where he had fled to, and waited for more appropriate services to arrive, rather than escalating the situation by twice pepper spraying him while he was in the closet.
A four-member emergency response team had been dispatched one minute before the first round of pepper spray was fired, according to a Special Investigations Unit report.
“They just totally changed the whole situation the minute they did that,” Rachel said. “I just feel so many things could have gone differently.”
Kimberley ultimately believes her brother was killed because of inadequate officer training and is calling for empathy and de-escalation training for police, and the use of less-lethal weapons.
“That cop didn’t wake up that morning wanting to shoot somebody, I truly believe that,” she said.
Mathias’ life, short as it was, was a blessing to the family, Kimberley said.
Though his death, she said, will be “a waste … if nothing comes of this; nothing comes of our fight.”
A year later, the shadow of grief feels more familiar, if not easier to be around.
The hardest part, the women say, is the learning process—to give themselves permission to experience joy.
“Somebody has to be here for the people that are left—we can’t die with him,” Kimberley said.
“I think the way to honour him is to love the kids, love our family, to love each other,” Rachel added.
“There’s no moving on; it’s moving forward.”
https://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/on ... -training/
FERGUS — At Templin Gardens on a mid-week afternoon, Sandra and Alysha Bunyan are sitting at a picnic table bordered by gardens planted with bright flowers and lush greenery.
Sparrows flitter about and passersby stroll along brick pathways through the sunshine-soaked area unaware of the weight bearing down on the mother and daughter as the first anniversary of the death of Mathias Bunyan—a son, brother, and uncle—grew ever closer.
Aug. 15 brought with it no cause for celebration.
The anniversary came and went, marked by a grief and anguish difficult even for the family to comprehend, as a mother and three sisters mourned the death of Mathias at the hands of police.
It was a little over a year ago, on that August day, that an unknown Wellington OPP officer killed Mathias by firing four rounds into the 31-year-old in his Belsyde Avenue apartment where he ultimately took his last breath.
When the Advertiser last spoke with his sisters—Alysha Bunyan, Rachel Labrie, and Kimberley Feather—they were left feeling, in their words, distraught, confused, and lost.
Their lives would become akin to a rollercoaster ride, marked by questions without answers.
In the weeks following, the sisters repeatedly invited the public into their once-private lives by speaking with reporters, at times allowing dark and revealing details about who their brother had become, intertwined with others about more joyful and innocent times, and the fondness the women felt for a sibling they describe as a “gentle giant.”
Alysha had this to say recently: “My life is now split in to two: it’s before my brother was murdered and after my brother was murdered.”
In many ways, their lives are unchanged from one year ago. The same unanswered questions remain about what exactly happened inside Mathias’ apartment, and what had gone so wrong in his life leading up to that fateful day.
There’s hope a future mandatory coroner’s inquest will bring to light more details, currently only known to police, surrounding their actions and Mathias’ subsequent death, but nobody knows when the inquest will begin.
Although healing has begun, closure at this point is unreachable. It hides somewhere in the distance; a year off, maybe two, maybe more.
However, not all progress has been stunted by the slow and inhumane churning of the legal system during the past year.
Sandra hadn’t previously been able to muster the wherewithal to participate in an interview about the killing of her son.
“I could hardly talk … I’d get a couple sentences out and then forget where I was,” she said.
And yet, here she sat: wearing oversized sunglasses, her grey curly hair fashioned, and her lips made bright with pink lipstick.
She has returned to her job at a local long-term care home, following extended time away.
Alysha, now a year older at 30, says the family is “trying to do the best we can with the circumstances that we’ve been dealt.”
“We’re still grieving every day,” she said.
The week leading up to the day Mathias was killed had been fragile.
“You have all these memories that just flood your brain, and it leaves you paralyzed and then you’re just stuck almost in this one spot,” Alysha said.
The women brought mementos of Mathias’ life, including a striped red and black touque he used to wear.
Sandra feels the fabric in her hands while talking, and bringing the touque closer to her face, she says, “Oh wow, it does smell like him, oh my God.”
“I know, it’s hard, I smell it every day,” Alysha says.
Tears begin streaming down Sandra’s face.
Mathias’ death has torn the close-knit fabric of the family.
“We’re learning how to …” Sandra begins, Alysha picking up the thought, “relive again without our brother and your son.”
“It’s tough to navigate,” Sandra says. “I am trying … but I don’t know if we’ll ever be the same together.”
Alysha—having been the first to arrive and find out her brother had been killed, the one to identify her brother in a photograph, and also to have seen photos from the Special Investigations Unit of her dead brother frozen in terror and covered in blood—was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder six months after Mathias’ death and remains on a waitlist for trauma-specific therapy over a year away.
The youngest of the siblings, Alysha was once a fun-loving, extroverted person, her sisters say.
Alysha recognizes a change in herself; leaving home is unfathomable some days.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling of emotions; you don’t know whether you want to yell, scream, or cry,” she says.
If pain easily overwhelms Alysha, her older sisters, Kimberley Feather and Rachel Labrie, who also spoke with a reporter at Templin Gardens two days later, are more stoic.
“It’s cracked our family,” Kimberley said. “We love each other and stuff, but are we the same? No, there’s a piece of us missing.”
Grief manifests differently, but feelings of guilt and helplessness are shared among the women.
In the year leading up to Mathias’ death, the family says they fought with a man they no longer recognized—both in appearance and personality—as he descended farther into what they suspect was an undiagnosed mental illness.
“There was nowhere to turn,” Kimberley said.
In the many phone calls the family made to support services, Kimberley questions why “someone didn’t help us to help him.”
The sisters describe feelings of bewilderment and helplessness and Sandra said she only received pushback when trying to help her son.
She wrestles with doubt about whether more could have been done.
“I blame him too; I’m mad at him too,” she said.
Sandra adjusts her posture and slouches, touching three bracelets around her left wrist, while looking to framed photographs of her son, where he is pictured standing upright and very much alive.
A minute of silence passes before Sandra says, “He was a decent person at one time, and he was ill.”
The family is calling for better mental health resources for families with loved ones who are struggling with mental illness, such as de-escalation coaching, how to identify and navigate triggers, and how to manage volatile relationships.
“Say to yourself: ‘This could be my family, too,’” Rachel said. “There’s got to be something done so that other families are not going to live in this nightmare.”
The family also wants to see more suitable professionals responding to mental-health related calls.
Having several officers force their way into her home, Alysha imagines, would be intimidating for her on a good day.
The sisters question why officers couldn’t have left Mathias in the closest where he had fled to, and waited for more appropriate services to arrive, rather than escalating the situation by twice pepper spraying him while he was in the closet.
A four-member emergency response team had been dispatched one minute before the first round of pepper spray was fired, according to a Special Investigations Unit report.
“They just totally changed the whole situation the minute they did that,” Rachel said. “I just feel so many things could have gone differently.”
Kimberley ultimately believes her brother was killed because of inadequate officer training and is calling for empathy and de-escalation training for police, and the use of less-lethal weapons.
“That cop didn’t wake up that morning wanting to shoot somebody, I truly believe that,” she said.
Mathias’ life, short as it was, was a blessing to the family, Kimberley said.
Though his death, she said, will be “a waste … if nothing comes of this; nothing comes of our fight.”
A year later, the shadow of grief feels more familiar, if not easier to be around.
The hardest part, the women say, is the learning process—to give themselves permission to experience joy.
“Somebody has to be here for the people that are left—we can’t die with him,” Kimberley said.
“I think the way to honour him is to love the kids, love our family, to love each other,” Rachel added.
“There’s no moving on; it’s moving forward.”
https://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/on ... -training/
Michael Jack, Administrator
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Michael Jack
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Inquest announced into death of Fergus man shot by OPP
A coroner’s inquest will look into the circumstances surrounding the death of a Fergus man who was shot by Ontario Provincial Police.
On Aug. 15, 2021, officers responded to a domestic disturbance call on Belsyde Avenue East.
According to the Special Investigations Unit, OPP began negotiating with the man who was hiding in a bedroom with knives. When he approached officers, they used pepper spray, conducted energy weapons and then fired a gun at the man.
Mathias Bunyan, 31, died at the scene.
His family later told CTV News that he was struggling with mental health issues and they had planned on staging an intervention with him that same week.
The OPP officer who shot Bunyan was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the SIU in December 2021.
The coroner’s inquest will look into the events leading up to the shooting. A jury will then determine if any recommendations are needed to prevent similar deaths.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/inquest-an ... -1.6999310
On Aug. 15, 2021, officers responded to a domestic disturbance call on Belsyde Avenue East.
According to the Special Investigations Unit, OPP began negotiating with the man who was hiding in a bedroom with knives. When he approached officers, they used pepper spray, conducted energy weapons and then fired a gun at the man.
Mathias Bunyan, 31, died at the scene.
His family later told CTV News that he was struggling with mental health issues and they had planned on staging an intervention with him that same week.
The OPP officer who shot Bunyan was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the SIU in December 2021.
The coroner’s inquest will look into the events leading up to the shooting. A jury will then determine if any recommendations are needed to prevent similar deaths.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/inquest-an ... -1.6999310
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Michael Jack
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Inquest to be held to review fatal 2021 OPP shooting in Fergus
SIU director ruled 'no reasonable grounds' to charge officer who fired shots
An inquest will be held to review the 2021 fatal police shooting of a Fergus, Ont., man.
The regional supervising coroner for west region made the announcement Tuesday. The inquest into the death of 31-year-old Mathias Bunyan is mandatory under the Coroners Act.
The exact date and venue will be provided at a later date, the media release said.
In its review of the interaction, the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said officers with Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were called to Bunyan's apartment at about 11 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2021.
Officers were responding to a disturbance call and were told it "could be related to possible mental health issues," the report said. They were told there had been several mental health calls about Bunyan in November 2020.
Officers were also told Bunyan was hiding in a bedroom and had knives with him. The SIU report says officers saw him with knives before he hid in a closet. Officers attempted to convince him to leave the closet and surrender but instead, the report says Bunyan left the closet and "came at" one of the officers.
"A knife was in each of the complainant's hands," the report says. Two conducted energy weapons were used, which did not stop Bunyan, the report said. That's when "the officer fired his gun point-blank four times."
Bunyan died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
In a decision released Dec. 10, 2021, SIU director Joseph Martino said there were "no reasonable grounds" to believe the officer who shot Bunyan committed a criminal offence.
"By the time the [subject officer] fired his weapon, repeated exhortations on the part of the officers to have the complainant disarm himself and the use of [pepper] spray had failed to bring the standoff to a peaceful resolution," Martino wrote.
"Caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [subject officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own."
In his obituary, Bunyan's family wrote that he was a "gentle, loving, smart person whose dream was to have kids and a farm."
"Mathias would hug you so tight that you'd think your head would pop off and had the most contagious laugh. He loved animals, playing magic cards, life, dancing the polka, all genres of music and Pokémon," the obituary says. "Mathias had a favourite phrase: 'Be kind.'"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchene ... -1.7293565
An inquest will be held to review the 2021 fatal police shooting of a Fergus, Ont., man.
The regional supervising coroner for west region made the announcement Tuesday. The inquest into the death of 31-year-old Mathias Bunyan is mandatory under the Coroners Act.
The exact date and venue will be provided at a later date, the media release said.
In its review of the interaction, the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said officers with Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were called to Bunyan's apartment at about 11 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2021.
Officers were responding to a disturbance call and were told it "could be related to possible mental health issues," the report said. They were told there had been several mental health calls about Bunyan in November 2020.
Officers were also told Bunyan was hiding in a bedroom and had knives with him. The SIU report says officers saw him with knives before he hid in a closet. Officers attempted to convince him to leave the closet and surrender but instead, the report says Bunyan left the closet and "came at" one of the officers.
"A knife was in each of the complainant's hands," the report says. Two conducted energy weapons were used, which did not stop Bunyan, the report said. That's when "the officer fired his gun point-blank four times."
Bunyan died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
In a decision released Dec. 10, 2021, SIU director Joseph Martino said there were "no reasonable grounds" to believe the officer who shot Bunyan committed a criminal offence.
"By the time the [subject officer] fired his weapon, repeated exhortations on the part of the officers to have the complainant disarm himself and the use of [pepper] spray had failed to bring the standoff to a peaceful resolution," Martino wrote.
"Caught in the tight confines of a small bedroom and with nowhere else to go, I accept that the [subject officer] acted reasonably to defend himself when he met the risk of a potentially deadly knife attack with a resort to lethal force of his own."
In his obituary, Bunyan's family wrote that he was a "gentle, loving, smart person whose dream was to have kids and a farm."
"Mathias would hug you so tight that you'd think your head would pop off and had the most contagious laugh. He loved animals, playing magic cards, life, dancing the polka, all genres of music and Pokémon," the obituary says. "Mathias had a favourite phrase: 'Be kind.'"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchene ... -1.7293565
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Inquest rules Fergus man's death a homicide after he was shot by police
A jury has ruled that a Fergus man’s death in 2021 was a homicide.
A coroner’s inquest was announced earlier this year to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of a man who was fatally shot by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Officers were called to a domestic disturbance on Belsyde Avenue East on Aug. 15, 2021.
According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the OPP negotiated with the man who was hiding in a bedroom. They said he had knives with him.
When the man approached officers, they used pepper spray and conducted energy weapons on him. An officer then fired a gun at the man.
The man, 31-year-old Mathias Bunyan, was killed by the shot.
Inquest’s ruling
Documents from the Office of the Chief Coroner list Bunyan’s cause of death as a ‘gunshot wound to the chest.’
The inquest jury also called the death a ‘homicide’ in their ruling.
"What that means in the coroner's system is that this was a non accidental death, caused by others. It doesn't have the same meaning as in a criminal context, where there would be liability and intent behind that," Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan's family told CTV News on Thursday.
"The family is very pleased to have this result," she said. "Even though it is difficult news to recieve at this time of year in particular."
The jury put forth 15 recommendations following the investigation into Bunyan’s death.
They are asking the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County and other similar areas in the province. The jury wants that funding to increase the availability of mental health crisis and addictions programs and add more spaces for psychiatric assessment and treatment.
The jury also recommended the Government of Ontario increase funding for the OPP to make sure crisis negotiators are always available at all OPP detachments across the province.
Groves Memorial Community Hospital was urged to ensure employees are given training on the legal standards regarding restraint or confinement before a patient is sent to a psychiatric facility for assessment.
Homewood Health Centre was asked to revise their long-form Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Services Mental Health Assessment to include screening questions on gender dysphoria and potential suicide or self-harm risk factors associated with it.
They jury recommended The Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy review footage from Bunyan’s death to create training on conflict prevention, de-escalation and communication techniques for dealing with crisis situations.
The Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General is being asked to develop a working group that would look at what it would take to give officers more non-lethal use of force options that could be used during mental health or drug-induced crisis calls.
Matthews said one of the methods she would like examined is the use of pepper spray.
"I think members of the public might think, 'Well, what's the harm with using pepper spray?' It's the lesser use of force than other options," Matthews said. "In this case, what we've learned is that police are trained, at college and in the academy, that there are risks of using pepper spray on someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. That it can make them act unpredicably."
Matthews said the latest development reopens a wound for the family still dealing the the acute grief of the loss.
"I think this inquest shows a familiar story. It is often the case that people who cannot access needed mental health services, if they end up experiencing a mental health crisis and police are called to their home, this often results in police [involved] deaths," Matthews said.
But the inquest may not be the end of the case for the family.
"There is a lawsuit that the family has out against the provincial Crown that represents the OPP in this case, and that remains pending," Matthews said. "That is the only other available legal proceeding that the family can pursue arising from the incident."
Full list of recommendations
To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health
1. Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County. This should include funding and recourses directed at:
- Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
- Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, an
- Increasing access to addictions resources
2. Investigate increasing funding and recourses for mental health and addictions services in all similar areas of Ontario to ensure adequate funding and resources directed at:
- Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
- Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, and
- Increasing access to addictions resources
To the Government of Ontario
3. Increase funding and recourses to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) specifically directed at ensuring at ensuring that crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at each OPP detachment across Ontario
4. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to ensure that Emergency Response Team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner throughout the province
5. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training
To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre
6. Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint or confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before ethe person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment
To Homewood Health Centre
7. Following consultation with experts, revise the Emergency Mental Health & Addictions Service (EMHAS) Mental health Assessment – long Form, completed by nursing staff, to:
- Include screening questions related to gender dysphoria;
- Include gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide/self-harm risk factors
To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy
8. Review and analyze the body worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on:
- Conflict prevention and de-escalation;
- Relational communication with persons in crisis;
- Techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams such as the Emergency Response Team, Tactics and Rescue Unit and/or crisis negotiators;
- Decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons, including OC spray
To the Ontario Provincial Police
9. Develop a process to provide body worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training
10. Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body camera footage in police training, in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy
11. Reinforce the requirement that all Ontario Provincial Police officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in the notes
12. Ensure that all OPP officers area instructed about the risks of using OC spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induce crisis
13. Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices
14. Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training
To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General
15. Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal use of force option that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/inquest-ru ... -1.7152099
A coroner’s inquest was announced earlier this year to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of a man who was fatally shot by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Officers were called to a domestic disturbance on Belsyde Avenue East on Aug. 15, 2021.
According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the OPP negotiated with the man who was hiding in a bedroom. They said he had knives with him.
When the man approached officers, they used pepper spray and conducted energy weapons on him. An officer then fired a gun at the man.
The man, 31-year-old Mathias Bunyan, was killed by the shot.
Inquest’s ruling
Documents from the Office of the Chief Coroner list Bunyan’s cause of death as a ‘gunshot wound to the chest.’
The inquest jury also called the death a ‘homicide’ in their ruling.
"What that means in the coroner's system is that this was a non accidental death, caused by others. It doesn't have the same meaning as in a criminal context, where there would be liability and intent behind that," Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan's family told CTV News on Thursday.
"The family is very pleased to have this result," she said. "Even though it is difficult news to recieve at this time of year in particular."
The jury put forth 15 recommendations following the investigation into Bunyan’s death.
They are asking the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County and other similar areas in the province. The jury wants that funding to increase the availability of mental health crisis and addictions programs and add more spaces for psychiatric assessment and treatment.
The jury also recommended the Government of Ontario increase funding for the OPP to make sure crisis negotiators are always available at all OPP detachments across the province.
Groves Memorial Community Hospital was urged to ensure employees are given training on the legal standards regarding restraint or confinement before a patient is sent to a psychiatric facility for assessment.
Homewood Health Centre was asked to revise their long-form Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Services Mental Health Assessment to include screening questions on gender dysphoria and potential suicide or self-harm risk factors associated with it.
They jury recommended The Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy review footage from Bunyan’s death to create training on conflict prevention, de-escalation and communication techniques for dealing with crisis situations.
The Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General is being asked to develop a working group that would look at what it would take to give officers more non-lethal use of force options that could be used during mental health or drug-induced crisis calls.
Matthews said one of the methods she would like examined is the use of pepper spray.
"I think members of the public might think, 'Well, what's the harm with using pepper spray?' It's the lesser use of force than other options," Matthews said. "In this case, what we've learned is that police are trained, at college and in the academy, that there are risks of using pepper spray on someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. That it can make them act unpredicably."
Matthews said the latest development reopens a wound for the family still dealing the the acute grief of the loss.
"I think this inquest shows a familiar story. It is often the case that people who cannot access needed mental health services, if they end up experiencing a mental health crisis and police are called to their home, this often results in police [involved] deaths," Matthews said.
But the inquest may not be the end of the case for the family.
"There is a lawsuit that the family has out against the provincial Crown that represents the OPP in this case, and that remains pending," Matthews said. "That is the only other available legal proceeding that the family can pursue arising from the incident."
Full list of recommendations
To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health
1. Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County. This should include funding and recourses directed at:
- Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
- Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, an
- Increasing access to addictions resources
2. Investigate increasing funding and recourses for mental health and addictions services in all similar areas of Ontario to ensure adequate funding and resources directed at:
- Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
- Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, and
- Increasing access to addictions resources
To the Government of Ontario
3. Increase funding and recourses to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) specifically directed at ensuring at ensuring that crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at each OPP detachment across Ontario
4. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to ensure that Emergency Response Team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner throughout the province
5. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training
To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre
6. Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint or confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before ethe person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment
To Homewood Health Centre
7. Following consultation with experts, revise the Emergency Mental Health & Addictions Service (EMHAS) Mental health Assessment – long Form, completed by nursing staff, to:
- Include screening questions related to gender dysphoria;
- Include gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide/self-harm risk factors
To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy
8. Review and analyze the body worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on:
- Conflict prevention and de-escalation;
- Relational communication with persons in crisis;
- Techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams such as the Emergency Response Team, Tactics and Rescue Unit and/or crisis negotiators;
- Decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons, including OC spray
To the Ontario Provincial Police
9. Develop a process to provide body worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training
10. Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body camera footage in police training, in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy
11. Reinforce the requirement that all Ontario Provincial Police officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in the notes
12. Ensure that all OPP officers area instructed about the risks of using OC spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induce crisis
13. Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices
14. Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training
To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General
15. Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal use of force option that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/inquest-ru ... -1.7152099
Michael Jack, Administrator
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Fergus man's death by police could have been prevented: inquest
FERGUS – Lawyers for the family of a Fergus man shot and killed by police three years ago said the recently completed coroner’s inquest into his death shows it could have been prevented.
There were 15 jury recommendations resulting from the inquest into the death of Mathias Bunyan, including that OPP officers be instructed on the risks of using pepper spray on people in crisis and analyzing the body-worn camera footage from the fatal interaction to be used to inform training on conflict de-escalation.
The inquest was held over 10 days in December, concluding on Dec. 12, with 10 witnesses including Bunyan’s sister, members of the OPP who interacted with him directly, other OPP officials including a training officer, emergency room doctors from Groves hospital, a forensic toxicologist and a mental health nurse.
A coroner’s inquest is a public hearing conducted by a coroner before a jury of five community members to inform the public about the circumstances of a death. A jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing future similar deaths but the conclusions are not binding.
Bunyan was 31 years old when he was shot and killed by police in his Fergus apartment on Aug. 15, 2021.
Family members at the time told EloraFergusToday Bunyan was suffering from a mental health crisis when police visited his apartment on Belsyde Avenue for a reported domestic incident and they allege he was a victim of systemic police violence.
A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation concluded no charges would be laid against the Wellington OPP officer who fatally shot Bunyan.
The SIU report said police responded to the apartment after receiving a call about a domestic disturbance and possible mental health issues as a man was heard screaming and yelling inside a unit and unresponsive to a property manager who was trying to speak with him.
After Bunyan had barricaded himself in a closet, he was pepper sprayed by police and came out with knives in his hand, according to the SIU report. Police then used conductive energy weapons before an officer used his gun and fired four shots.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bunyan’s family directed all media inquiries to their lawyer.
Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan’s family, said the family is still grieving but is taking solace in the facts of the case supporting the death being ruled a homicide.
While it’s not the same as it is in the criminal context, Matthews explained a homicide ruling means the death was non-accidental and caused by somebody else, in this case by members of the OPP.
“In other words, this could have been prevented,” Matthews said.
In this inquest, Matthews explained the jury had the “unique opportunity” of viewing body-worn camera footage and observed a first-person narrative as to what occurred when OPP attended Bunyan’s apartment.
“Mathias was experiencing a mental health crisis, he was passively resisting apprehension, he had not harmed himself and he was not representing an acute risk of harm to anybody else,” Matthews said. “Officers had decisions to make about how to respond to Mathias and what we learned is that police officers are taught nowadays that they can actually use time and distance and this usually has a higher chance of resulting in a safe apprehension.”
Matthews said this is not what police did in this case.
“They applied pepper spray and it caused a very chaotic scene where Mathias ended up losing his life,” Matthews said. “We hope that this body camera footage will be used in training for future scenario based training.”
Matthews said those decisions officers made included getting closer to Bunyan, opening his bedroom door and closet door when they could have “continued to negotiate with him through a closed door” and bought more time while an emergency response team was on its way.
A court exhibit, obtained and viewed by EloraFergusToday, showed over an hour long body-worn camera video from one of the officers who responded to the scene.
It begins with officers inside the apartment building making contact with Bunyan before he shuts himself in his room. An officer noted he had two knives and they strategized about the best way to proceed.
An OPP officer opens the bedroom door about 29 minutes in, asking Bunyan to come out of the closet with his hands up. The closet door is later opened by a police officer.
The officer and Bunyan talk back and forth with the officer asking him to come out and Bunyan refusing, making occasional threats to himself which he often takes back.
Pepper spray is first used without warning at about the 57-and-a-half minute mark following some commotion where Bunyan dropped a guitar. He is pepper sprayed again minutes later with no warning issued.
Pepper spray was used a final time again without warning at the end of the video which resulted in Bunyan quickly exiting the closet and walking towards officers and the video ends.
Matthews said body-worn cameras will be an important piece of enhancing police transparency and accountability, noting there’s a lot more footage in the United States which often is used in Canadian police training.
“I think we’re now in an era where there will be more and more body-worn cameras issued to frontline officers,” Matthews said.
“The OPP is amidst an operation to issue one to every frontline officer and we were fortunate in this case to have that evidence because it was critical evidence in this case. I think it shows what can go wrong when officers act quickly or refuse to wait or stop negotiating with an individual through closed doors.”
While the recommendations from the coroner’s inquest aren’t binding, Matthews said there is a unique added layer of these recommendations being jointly sought by all parties involved.
“Each of these recommendations were canvassed with the respective parties and their clients and they instructed them as being feasible,” Matthews said. “I think that also makes it more likely that these recommendations will be carried out.”
The jury’s 15 recommendations from the Mathias Bunyan inquest are:
To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health
Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County including increasing the availability of patient-centered programs, the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment and increasing access to addictions resources
Investigate increasing funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in similar areas of Ontario
To the government of Ontario
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP directed at ensuring crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at every detachment in Ontario
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP ensure emergency response team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training
To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre
- Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint and confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before the person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment
To Homewood Health Centre
- Revise the Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Service mental health assessment by including screening questions related to gender dysphoria and gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide and self-harm risk factors
To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy
- Review and analyze the body-worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on conflict prevention and de-escalation, relational communication with persons in crisis, techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams and decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons including pepper spray
To the OPP
- Develop a process to provide body-worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training
- Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body-worn camera footage in police training in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy
- Reinforce the requirement that all OPP officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in their notes
- Ensure all OPP officers are instructed about the risks of using pepper spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis
- Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices
- Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training
To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General
Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal force options that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induced crisis
https://www.elorafergustoday.com/local- ... st-9973023
There were 15 jury recommendations resulting from the inquest into the death of Mathias Bunyan, including that OPP officers be instructed on the risks of using pepper spray on people in crisis and analyzing the body-worn camera footage from the fatal interaction to be used to inform training on conflict de-escalation.
The inquest was held over 10 days in December, concluding on Dec. 12, with 10 witnesses including Bunyan’s sister, members of the OPP who interacted with him directly, other OPP officials including a training officer, emergency room doctors from Groves hospital, a forensic toxicologist and a mental health nurse.
A coroner’s inquest is a public hearing conducted by a coroner before a jury of five community members to inform the public about the circumstances of a death. A jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing future similar deaths but the conclusions are not binding.
Bunyan was 31 years old when he was shot and killed by police in his Fergus apartment on Aug. 15, 2021.
Family members at the time told EloraFergusToday Bunyan was suffering from a mental health crisis when police visited his apartment on Belsyde Avenue for a reported domestic incident and they allege he was a victim of systemic police violence.
A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation concluded no charges would be laid against the Wellington OPP officer who fatally shot Bunyan.
The SIU report said police responded to the apartment after receiving a call about a domestic disturbance and possible mental health issues as a man was heard screaming and yelling inside a unit and unresponsive to a property manager who was trying to speak with him.
After Bunyan had barricaded himself in a closet, he was pepper sprayed by police and came out with knives in his hand, according to the SIU report. Police then used conductive energy weapons before an officer used his gun and fired four shots.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bunyan’s family directed all media inquiries to their lawyer.
Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan’s family, said the family is still grieving but is taking solace in the facts of the case supporting the death being ruled a homicide.
While it’s not the same as it is in the criminal context, Matthews explained a homicide ruling means the death was non-accidental and caused by somebody else, in this case by members of the OPP.
“In other words, this could have been prevented,” Matthews said.
In this inquest, Matthews explained the jury had the “unique opportunity” of viewing body-worn camera footage and observed a first-person narrative as to what occurred when OPP attended Bunyan’s apartment.
“Mathias was experiencing a mental health crisis, he was passively resisting apprehension, he had not harmed himself and he was not representing an acute risk of harm to anybody else,” Matthews said. “Officers had decisions to make about how to respond to Mathias and what we learned is that police officers are taught nowadays that they can actually use time and distance and this usually has a higher chance of resulting in a safe apprehension.”
Matthews said this is not what police did in this case.
“They applied pepper spray and it caused a very chaotic scene where Mathias ended up losing his life,” Matthews said. “We hope that this body camera footage will be used in training for future scenario based training.”
Matthews said those decisions officers made included getting closer to Bunyan, opening his bedroom door and closet door when they could have “continued to negotiate with him through a closed door” and bought more time while an emergency response team was on its way.
A court exhibit, obtained and viewed by EloraFergusToday, showed over an hour long body-worn camera video from one of the officers who responded to the scene.
It begins with officers inside the apartment building making contact with Bunyan before he shuts himself in his room. An officer noted he had two knives and they strategized about the best way to proceed.
An OPP officer opens the bedroom door about 29 minutes in, asking Bunyan to come out of the closet with his hands up. The closet door is later opened by a police officer.
The officer and Bunyan talk back and forth with the officer asking him to come out and Bunyan refusing, making occasional threats to himself which he often takes back.
Pepper spray is first used without warning at about the 57-and-a-half minute mark following some commotion where Bunyan dropped a guitar. He is pepper sprayed again minutes later with no warning issued.
Pepper spray was used a final time again without warning at the end of the video which resulted in Bunyan quickly exiting the closet and walking towards officers and the video ends.
Matthews said body-worn cameras will be an important piece of enhancing police transparency and accountability, noting there’s a lot more footage in the United States which often is used in Canadian police training.
“I think we’re now in an era where there will be more and more body-worn cameras issued to frontline officers,” Matthews said.
“The OPP is amidst an operation to issue one to every frontline officer and we were fortunate in this case to have that evidence because it was critical evidence in this case. I think it shows what can go wrong when officers act quickly or refuse to wait or stop negotiating with an individual through closed doors.”
While the recommendations from the coroner’s inquest aren’t binding, Matthews said there is a unique added layer of these recommendations being jointly sought by all parties involved.
“Each of these recommendations were canvassed with the respective parties and their clients and they instructed them as being feasible,” Matthews said. “I think that also makes it more likely that these recommendations will be carried out.”
The jury’s 15 recommendations from the Mathias Bunyan inquest are:
To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health
Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County including increasing the availability of patient-centered programs, the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment and increasing access to addictions resources
Investigate increasing funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in similar areas of Ontario
To the government of Ontario
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP directed at ensuring crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at every detachment in Ontario
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP ensure emergency response team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner
- Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training
To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre
- Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint and confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before the person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment
To Homewood Health Centre
- Revise the Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Service mental health assessment by including screening questions related to gender dysphoria and gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide and self-harm risk factors
To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy
- Review and analyze the body-worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on conflict prevention and de-escalation, relational communication with persons in crisis, techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams and decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons including pepper spray
To the OPP
- Develop a process to provide body-worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training
- Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body-worn camera footage in police training in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy
- Reinforce the requirement that all OPP officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in their notes
- Ensure all OPP officers are instructed about the risks of using pepper spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis
- Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices
- Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training
To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General
Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal force options that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induced crisis
https://www.elorafergustoday.com/local- ... st-9973023
Michael Jack, Administrator