| Apr 27, 2017


After two days of testimony in the coroner’s inquest into the death of Robert (Bob) Srigley, who was shot by Ontario Provincial Police Officers (OPP) on July 25/2013 and died 3 days later at Kingston General Hospital, a picture has emerged. It is that of a severely troubled man whose ultimate end resulted from a series of actions and reactions by him, community members concerned about his well-being, and members of the Lanark detachment of the OPP.

Michael Blain, counsel to Coroner Dr. John Carlisle, said on Tuesday (April 25) that the inquest would be wrapping up the next morning, and after receiving instructions from the coroner, the five member jury would be heading to a jury room to confirm their findings and prepare a report on the death.

The testimony commenced on Monday with a detailed account of Mr. Srigley’s life and history of altercations with police from his brother Scott, a police officer himself, who serves with the Guelph police force.

He talked about his brother’s life, going back to childhood, and presented a sequence of events that explained the twists and turns of his brother’s life, and how he came to “hate the blue uniform”.

“I am here as a brother, not a police officer,” Scott Srigley said to the five member jury. “I can't comment on what happened that day. I wasn't there, but when you make your recommendations I think you should consider a few things”.

Srigley then said that his brother’s death, in his mind, came about as the result of a failure of the mental health and welfare systems in Ontario. The police response to the 911 call on July 25/2013 representing only the final moments of a life that had been deteriorating for years. He said that the fact that the Ontario Disability Support system pays a fixed amount of money to every recipient (about $1,000 a month for a single male) made it impossible for his brother to establish a safe living situation on the property he had purchased on the Arden Tamworth Road.

“Rob was living way, way below the poverty line,” he said,

He also said that in the name of protecting his brother’s civil rights, the mental health system made it impossible for his mother and him to get Robert the help he needed.

Finally, he questioned the decision to send a four member team of OPP officers to the 911 call on July 25th.

“If you send a brain surgeon to fix a car, or you send a mechanic into the operating room to do brain surgery, it will not go well,” he said. “For my brother, 4 blue uniforms arriving at that scene was the last thing he needed.”

Srigley went on to say that, at least in urban areas where it is practical, emergency mental health units should accompany police when they attend at mental health emergencies.

“I don't want more and more of these inquests to take place in more and more halls like this,” he said.

In the second day of the hearing, Scott Srigley’s comment about the appropriateness of the police to the 911 call was addressed in detail.

Each of the four officers who responded to the call that day, as well as both of the Paramedics who attended the scene, presented their own version of what transpired at the scene. The OPP officers are Constables Botham, Copp, and Niceliu and Sgt. Monker, all members of the Lanark detachment.

The four officers met up a short distance from Srigley’s property and formulated a plan. Constable Botham had been to the property before and had established a good, but inconsistant relationship with Srigley. He advised the others on the lay of the land at the property. At the inquest, each of the other officers said they had heard about Srigley and were aware that he could be co-operative at times but that he had a tendency toward violence and a hatred of police.

As a video from the scene showed, the property was in a bad state, with garbage strewn about and plastic pails and twisted metal poking out of the ground. Sgt. Monkers was in charge and he gave out the assignments. He was the only officer with the clearance to fire a taser so he carried one. Officer Botham had a rifle, and Officers Copp and Niceliu were carrying fire extinguishers. They all carried standard issue hand guns.

In calls about an hour earlier to his lawyer and to the Frontenac News, both of which resulted in 911 calls, Srigley said he was planning to get into his boat and set himself on fire.

As the officers made their way down the path to Srigley’s trailer, they were not sure if he was even home. They were greeted at first by his dogs, and when they got closer to the door Officer Botham, whose first name is Jody, called out, “Bob, its Jody, are you there, I want to talk to you.”

The door to the trailer opened and Bob Srigley, naked, burst out of the door and headed towards the water, or so it seemed to the officers at first. Officer Niceliu said that he started to head in the direction of Srigley to stop him from getting into his boat, but instead of heading towards the water, Srigley went to a picnic table, turned his back to police, and picked up what looked like a hunting rifle and turned to face the officers.

At that point each of the officers reacted in a different way. Copp, who was furthest away, made his way to a utility trailer near where he was standing, took cover behind it and pulled out his gun. Botham pulled out his police issue rifle, Monker pulled out his taser, and Niceliu dropped the fire extinguisher and pulled out his gun. They called to Srigley to drop the weapon, but Srigley pulled the rifle up and aimed it at the officers. Monkers said that he fired the taser even though he knew he was too far away for it to be of any use.

“I remember thinking, wrong weapon,” he said. Botham took aim with his rifle, and then Niceliu fired twice at Srigley’s upper body.

“From my viewpoint it appeared he was taking dead aim at Sgt. Monkers,” Niceliu said.

A police training officer who gave evidence on the first day of the hearing, explained that police officers in Ontario are trained to always fire at the chest area when they discharge a firearm because it is the easiest part of the body to hit and the most effective way to stop an assailant from being a danger to others.

Niceliu fired again and Srigley fell back and began to head back to his trailer, now pointing his gun to the side at Niceliu. Niceliu and Monkers both fired on him as he ran back to the trailer, hitting him on his side and back. Nine casings were recovered from the scene, and 6 of the bullets hit Srigley, two just grazing him and the other four causing various amounts of damage.

As Srigley fell headfirst on his front stoop, Sgt. Monkers approached, as did the others. Srigley’s hands were cuffed behind his back, and the rifle, which turned out to be a scoped pellet gun and not a hunting rifle, was found on the ground behind him. After searching the trailer and finding it was empty, Officer Niceliu held Bob Srigley’s head up because it was drooping to the side.

In his account, Officer Niceliu said that Srigley remained conscious and in the ten minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive on scene, “he asked me to take out my hand gun and shoot him in the head. He said ‘just kill me but take off the handcuffs first, I don’t want to die with hand cuffs on.’ He kept repeating that.”

Paramedics arrived and attended to the wounds as much as they could. Then with help from the officers they carried Srigley on a stretcher to the vehicle and headed towards Napanee hospital. Two of the officers, Copp and Botham, went in the ambulance with paramedics. Srigley remained conscious throughout the trip. He was transferred to Kingston afterwards and underwent surgery that night. The next day, as his mother and brother arrived, it appeared that he would make a recovery, but instead his condition deteriorated and he died on Sunday, July 28.

Michael Blain asked each of the officers if, in retrospect, they felt the situation could have been better handled by someone other than a police officer given Srigley’s history and state of mind, perhaps a mental health crisis team such as exist in larger centres.

Sgt. Monkers, who was the last to provide evidence, summed up what the others had all said in one way or another: “Only police have the training and the equipment to handle dangerous encounters. In this case there were way too many variables at play for someone without extensive training to deal with. Once we have secured a scene, sure a mental health crisis team can come it, but in this case we knew there was a potential for danger and we needed to try and get to Mr. Srigley before he caused damage to himself and we needed to secure our own safety if necessary, which is what happened. It was the correct response.”

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