Fatal 2008 shooting happened moments after police arrived, inquest told

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This article was published 23/11/2016 (3612 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took less than two minutes from the time Winnipeg police officer Tricia Zurawsky first spotted 26-year-old Craig McDougall for him to approach her with a knife and police to fatally shoot him, Zurawsky testified Wednesday.

On the sixth day of the inquest into McDougall’s 2008 death, Zurawsky described the events leading up to the gunfire from another officer’s weapon in the front yard of McDougall’s Simcoe Street home.

Three of the officer’s four shots hit McDougall, who had also been hit twice with a Taser.

Zurawsky was one of three officers who responded to a call reporting a stabbing at the West End home. She approached the house just after 5 a.m. with her partner, Const. Jason Leishman. Acting Patrol Sgt. Curtis Beyak was already on the scene.

With a flashlight in hand, Zurawsky said she approached the front yard and peered towards the back alley, where she saw McDougall. She told the court he was wearing jeans but had no shirt on and there was a cellphone in his left hand.

He began to walk toward Zurawsky — without saying a word — in a manner she described as “stone-cold” and “with a purpose.”

“He just looked right through me,” she said.

It was only when he got closer and began to round the corner toward the yard, that Zurawsky said she saw a knife pressed up against his wrist, tip towards his elbow, his hand gripping the handle.

“Knife! Knife! He has a knife!” she told the court she yelled.

At that point, it became a “game-changer,” she said.

‘Pinned, corralled, cornered’

Zurawsky described the scene as chaotic and “fast-moving” and said as McDougall approached the yard, she and the two other officers felt cornered — he was blocking their only exit. As he approached, a young child appeared outside the front door.

“I felt pinned, corralled, cornered,” she told the court. “My fear was him entering the home.”

Leishman fired a Taser at McDougall, which was “ineffective,” she said.

As officers screamed at the child to go inside, Zurawsky said she heard shots fired.

“I heard two shots — pop, pop — and the subject falls,” she said.

She radioed to let police know shots had been fired — one minute and 45 seconds after police first arrived on the scene.

Zurawsky is one of many witnesses testifying at the mandatory inquest, which is the first in Manitoba to consider what role, if any, systemic racism played in a police shooting.

The inquest isn’t designed to lay blame for McDougall’s death — an external review has already concluded police were justified in shooting him. At issue is whether anything could have been done differently that may have prevented the death, lawyer Corey Shefman, who is representing the McDougall family, said previously.

On Tuesday, provincial court Associate Chief Judge Anne Krahn heard testimony from Beyak, the officer who fired the shots.

Earlier this month, McDougall’s father Brian testified, telling the court that he was tackled to the ground after his son was shot and held there by an officer pressing on his neck with his knee.

McDougall’s father said he didn’t see any paramedics or anyone trying to help his son. He was put in a police cruiser, taken to the Public Safety Building, questioned and later told his son “didn’t make it,” he testified.

As the inquest continues, the judge is expected to hear more about how police shootings are investigated and how policies have changed since the Manitoba Independent Investigation Unit came into force in June 2015. Craig’s uncle, John McDougall is expected to testify on Thursday, however inquest lawyer Crown David Gray said Wednesday they were having difficulty locating him.

— with files from Katie May