Brian Hutchinson (National Post ) – A rookie RCMP officer who shot and killed a man he had stopped just minutes earlier for holding a beer will be among the first witnesses to testify at a public inquiry next week.
A coroner’s inquest into Ian Bush’s death begins Tuesday in Houston, a small, northern community situated 320 kilometres west of Prince George. A panel of five jurors will hear almost immediately from Constable Paul Koester, five months out of an RCMP training academy when he confronted Mr. Bush outside a local hockey arena in late October, 2005.
Mr. Bush had been drinking that evening, according to witness statements and court documents. Const. Koester confiscated a beer from Mr. Bush, and asked for his name.
Mr. Bush, a 22-year-old forestry products worker, offered a phony identity. Const. Koester arrested him, bundled him into his police cruiser, and drove him to the Houston RCMP detachment for booking. Less than half an hour later, Mr. Bush was dead.
What happened in the intervening moments is for the coroner’s jury to determine, if it can. That may not be easy. Differing accounts of the incident have already been offered, from various sources and in court documents.
Mr. Bush’s family is suing Const. Koester in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, alleging “unlawful assault and negligence.” Among other things, the family claims that Const. Koester failed to secure his firearm with a gunlock and neglected to switch on the detachment’s video camera.
Last summer, Const. Koester filed a statement of defence that describes his recollection of events.
After arriving at the detachment, the defense statement reads, Const. Koester removed Mr. Bush’s handcuffs and then started on paperwork that would release him from custody.
It was then that Mr. Bush “suddenly and unexpectedly” began to punch the officer in the head and face, says the statement of defence.
“Bush choked Constable Koester from behind,” it reads. “When Constable Koester began to lose consciousness, Constable Koester drew his service pistol and struck Bush with the barrel of the pistol several times in an effort to break free. Bush told Constable Koester to take his last breath.”
According to the statement of defence, the officer then fired his weapon, and shot Mr. Bush in the back of the head, killing him. The officer was “authorized and justified in using his service pistol,” reads the statement of defence, filed in court a day after B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch announced that no criminal charges would be laid in the case.
The decision not to lay criminal charges followed an RCMP report of its investigation of the incident; that report was reviewed by the province’s Attorney General, Wally Oppal, but has not been made public.
More scrutiny of the shooting is needed if the public is to have confidence in the RCMP and the judicial system, lawyers and civil rights advocates have said. The flow of information regarding police custody deaths can be agonizingly slow for families of the deceased. And police agencies should not continue the practice of reviewing cases internally, they say. Critics maintain that independent investigations should be conducted instead.
Because charges against police are rarely laid after a custody death, a coroner’s inquest can be the best opportunity for family members and the public to learn about the fatality. Inquests are formal court proceedings but jurors cannot determine liability; however, they are responsible for determining what led to a death and for making recommendations to prevent more deaths. Implementing recommendations is voluntary.
Occasionally, evidence raised in a coroner’s inquest may influence other inquiries, including those involving RCMP custody deaths.
Last month, the federal Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP announced that an inquest into the death of another B.C. man held in custody raised “issues relating to the inadequacy of the original criminal investigation.”
Kevin St. Arnaud, 29, was intoxicated when he was shot and killed by an inexperienced RCMP constable three years ago in Vanderhoof, B.C., 100 kilometres west of Prince George.
An inquest was held there earlier this year; jurors heard conflicting accounts of the incident, from RCMP members and from forensic experts. These cast doubt on the constable’s own testimony.
As a result, the complaints commission amended its original list of allegations against the RCMP’s conduct in the shooting incident, adding that officers “failed to conduct an adequate investigation into the death of Mr. St. Arnaud.” But it is still up to the RCMP to review its own “inadequate” investigation.
Calls for changes to the way police custody deaths are investigated will only increase, as more incidents occur and as more attention is paid to subsequent inquests, which are mandatory.
The Bush inquest is expected to receive significant media interest; reporters from around B.C. will be in attendance as proceedings get underway Tuesday morning, inside the Houston Community Hall.
And at least two more inquests this year in B.C. will examine cases where civilians died in RCMP custody. Three such inquests have already been held this year.
Alcohol or drug use by the deceased was a factor in most of these incidents. So was inadequate medical supervision or police work, inquest jurors found.
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