Jason Warick (Saskatchewan News Network) – RCMP Const. Mitch Perry’s eyes welled with tears as he prepared to answer one final question from the witness stand Tuesday.
Did Perry have anything to say to the family or community of 19-year-old Kyle Lariviere, Perry’s lawyer Randy Kirkham asked Tuesday, the second day of a coroner’s inquest into Lariviere’s death.
An apparently intoxicated Lariviere escaped Perry’s custody in the frigid early morning hours of Jan. 10, 2009. The inquest has heard what the coroner called “errors in judgment” made by Perry preceding Lariviere’s freezing death 40 hours later in the bush outside the town of Beauval.
Perry had been deferential and polite to that point, but showed no visible emotion. Kirkham’s question caused him to pause and look down at his feet for several seconds.
Perry slowly raised his head and looked out at Lariviere’s parents, Eval and Doreen, seated in the front row, as well as the other family members and residents of the Canoe Lake First Nation seated in the gallery.
“I just want to say I’m sorry for what happened. If I could change it, I would. I’m sorry,” he said with a quivering voice.
It was the first time Perry had addressed the Lariviere family directly, in private or public. Perry had been removed from his assignment at the Canoe Lake detachment the day after Lariviere’s death.
Eval Lariviere said he saw Perry earlier Tuesday at a Meadow Lake hotel restaurant. They greeted each other, but Perry was still under oath and forbidden from speaking about the case.
It’s unclear if Perry plans to contact the family directly in the future, as he and Kirkham quickly left court Tuesday following his testimony and declined an interview request.
Eval Lariviere said it was “good that he apologized,” but said the family still has “mixed emotions” over the officer’s conduct.
On Tuesday, coroner Richard Danyliuk said the inquest has made it “abundantly clear to the jury that the witness (Perry) made errors in judgment.”
Lariviere escaped that morning by opening the rear door of Perry’s police truck. Perry had left the window open while he went to unlock the detachment doors. Lariviere opened the door and sprinted off into the darkness.
Perry searched on foot and in his truck but did not find Lariviere. He then admitted to going home after his shift to nearby Canoe Lake and slept.
Lariviere family lawyer Eleanore Sunchild and Canoe Lake lawyer Silas Halyk grilled Perry about numerous aspects of the case. They asked why Perry did not notify his superiors or fellow officers, as per RCMP policy.
They said he should have called other officers immediately, or at least when he saw the other officers at a party about 15 hours later, but remained silent. He only notified others after the Lariviere family discovered tracks in the snow more than 24 hours after Kyle disappeared.
“You had a radio right there. All you had to do was push a button?” Halyk said, motioning to indicate a shoulder-mounted police radio.
“Yes,” Perry said.
Perry admitted he also failed to think of calling the search and rescue unit, the provincial dispatchers or a police dog unit, or search by snowmobile.
“I wish I would’ve done that, but I didn’t,” Perry said. He answered in similar ways to most of the questions.
Following Perry’s testimony, the tracker who traced Lariviere’s final steps in the snow took the stand.
A video recorded 11 days after Lariviere’s death was played in court. In the video, tracker and Lariviere family friend Rene Iron retraces for police the steps he took in the search. Zipping through knee-deep snow and a maze of jack pine and poplar, Iron is told several times to wait for the heavy-breathing police following him. He points to tracks, and several spots where Lariviere apparently sat down or fell in the snow.
“He hung onto this tree here. The bark,” Iron says on the video, noting the footprints and peeled bark.
A crying Doreen Lariviere left the courtroom at this point.
Halyk asked Iron if he would have found Lariviere alive if Perry or other police would have notified the family sooner.
“We would’ve gotten there right away,” Iron said, noting it’s always faster to track someone when the footprints are fresh.
The inquest continues today.
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