Inquest called into 2013 fatal police shooting of mentally ill Toronto man
The province will hold an inquest into the death of a 30-year-old man who was fatally shot during a standoff with Toronto police in 2013, the regional coroner announced Tuesday.
Ian Pryce died after he was shot in the head on Nov. 13, 2013. Paramedics confirmed the nature of Pryce's injuries to CBC News at the time of the shooting.
Pryce had barricaded himself behind a table on an apartment alcove on Sherbourne Street that afternoon. He was armed, but with a pellet gun.
Pryce suffered from schizophrenia and had been ill for more than a decade, his mother told the Toronto Star Tuesday.
SIU gets involved
The inquest comes after the province's Special Investigations Unit concluded its own investigation in January. That task force studies any situation in which a civilian is killed or injured in an encounter with police.
That investigation ended with the unit's director Tony Loparco ruling that neither of the two officers who shot at Pryce would face criminal charges.
Police first approached Pryce near Sherbourne and Wellesley streets around 12:30 p.m. that day, according to information released by SIU in January. The officers knew there was an outstanding warrant out for the man's arrest.
Pryce ran from those officers after they approached him, according to a release from the SIU. The SIU interviewed 15 police officers and 12 civilian witnesses to create the timeline they released in January tracing Pryce's death.
According to that timeline, Pryce fell as he ran and pointed a firearm at police.
Pellet gun
"The man [then] ran up the front steps of 433 Sherbourne St., took cover in the alcove at the front door of the building, and fired his pistol several times in the direction of the officer," the SIU timeline shows.
But that pistol turned out to be a pellet gun.
"Although the sound of the firearm suggested that the gun was a cap gun or a pellet gun... there is no indication that the officer's description of the sound, and the possibility that the gun was a pellet gun, was ever passed along," the SIU report says. "[Subsequent] responding officers were only informed of the fact that the man had earlier discharged a firearm at officers."
The Emergency Task Force arrived at the scene and a negotiator began trying to speak with Pryce, the SIU release says.
Two officers shot him when it looked like he was pointing a gun at police, the SIU said.
The provincial inquest will look at the events leading up to the shooting and make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.
A date for the inquest has not yet been set.
