'It's not over': Michel Vienneau's family reeling after end of case against officers

The family of Michel Vienneau, the 51-year-old Tracadie businessman who was killed by police in a Via Rail train station, said they are discouraged by the Crown's decision not to appeal its latest defeat in the legal proceedings against the two officers accused in Vienneau's death.

But brother Nicolas said the family will continue to try to find answers, despite this marking the end of the criminal proceedings against the two officers, Mathieu Boudreau, 28, and Patrick Bulger, 38, of the Bathurst police force.

"It's not over," brother Nicolas Vienneau said to CBC News.

- No appeal sought in decision not to try 2 officers in Bathurst shooting death

Almost three years after Michel Vienneau was shot inside his vehicle as he was trying to leave the Bathurst train station, the family is still trying to make sense of what happened.

A provincial court judge ruled earlier this year that she didn't think the police did anything wrong when Vienneau was shot. An appeal court upheld her decision not to send the case to trial, and prosecutors decided this week not to challenge the ruling.

Police were acting on a Crime Stoppers tip that turned out to be false when they attempted to stop him the morning of Jan.12, 2015.

Vienneau said the family has been living a nightmare for the past three years.

"They didn't just kill my brother," Vienneau said. "They killed my entire family."

"We were just two in the family, me and my brother."

Vienneau believed whoever called in the false tip that his brother was carrying a "load of drugs" on a train from Montreal wanted to do harm to his brother.

For the family, there remain shady details surrounding the death, and Vienneau said he was disappointed the court protected the identity of the tipster.

Informer privilege is absolute and a tipster's identity cannot be disclosed even during court proceedings.

In extremely rare cases, a court has lifted that privilege for a person who contacted Crime Stoppers with the intention of furthering their own criminal activity or interfering with the administration of justice.

Vienneau also feels the investigation didn't go far enough.

"Did the court ask the right questions? It didn't ask for any members of the public to testify," he said, also criticizing the lack of testimony from crime scene witnesses at the preliminary inquiry.

Besides Annick Basque, who was with Vienneau when he was shot, all the witnesses who testified were police officers.

Basque's version of events differed from that of the police officers. She testified the officers had not identified themselves, and she thought she and Vienneau were being attacked.

Basque has filed civil action against the City of Bathurst and the police force, and those proceedings are ongoing.

Vienneau family members have written to Justice Minister Denis Landry, asking for a coroner's inquiry into the death, following the Crown's decision not to appeal the latest turn in the criminal proceedings.

Nicolas Vienneau said he is also looking into bringing a petition to the House of Commons to have the identity of the tipster revealed.

"We're still looking for answers," he said.