Jury starts deliberating in inquest of Hamilton teen who was shot and killed by police

A jury is deliberating in the inquest into the death of Hamilton teen Quinn MacDougall, and will report back with recommendations of how authorities can avoid similar deaths.

The five-member panel heard final testimony Friday afternoon as part of the inquest. The 19-year-old Mountain resident was shot and killed by Hamilton police outside his townhouse complex on April 3, 2018.

Graeme Leach, an assistant Crown attorney representing inquest officer Dr. David Eden, said the purpose isn't to find fault. It's to determine if, for example, there are other tactics or methods of force police should have used that day.

"The events that we've been focusing on, although not exclusively, happened by my estimation within 16 seconds," he told the jury.

"Focus on Dr. Eden's instructions. Focus on your responsibilities as they will be given to you and focus on what potential recommendations can be made to avoid similar events moving forward."

Margaret Hoy, who represented the MacDougall family, said the jury's role is to "think in the deliberations about what went wrong here and what can be improved."

"No one wants this to happen to another person, including the MacDougall family." 

Friends, family, officers and 911 operators have testified during the two-week inquest.

MacDougall's father, Keith, said he spoke both face-to-face and on the phone with his son that day.

"He was a good son, brother, uncle and friend, and we miss him every single day," he told the inquest, struggling to hold back tears.

The jury has heard MacDougall got a threatening message on Snapchat. That message was the words "we're fighting," with a photo of MacDougall's Caledon Avenue townhouse.

MacDougall made several distraught 911 calls, the jury has heard. In those calls, he said a man with a gun was out to get him. At one point, he hung up on the emergency operator. Police also believed there was a "mental health component," Leach said.

Police responded, including a plain-clothes officer in an unmarked SUV. The inquest was told MacDougall appeared to run toward the SUV with a knife in his hand. A short time later, he was shot by police, and died in hospital. 

It's possible, the jury heard, that MacDougall thought the officer in the SUV was the person who prompted him to call 911 in the first place.

Det. Const. Marcello Filice was the undercover officer in the SUV. He told the inquest he saw "desperation" in MacDougall's eyes.

"I, at that point, thought that the knife was going to be coming through the window and I was going to get stabbed," he said.

"It's the closest I've ever come, hopefully the closest I ever come, to that kind of danger."

Const. Brittany Gingrich, another officer who was there, said she had used her Taser at the same time shots were fired.

Everything unfolded "extremely quickly … less than a minute," she said, and there was no time to "de-escalate and to give direction."

In April 2019, Ontario's Special Investigations Unit cleared Hamilton police of any wrongdoing. 

Leach told the jurors there are questions around MacDougall's death that will likely never be answered, including why he called police from a neighbour's house using the neighbour's cell phone when his own phone was working. 

"The pieces don't fit together," Leach said. "There are pieces missing."

"We will never know what was going on with Quinn MacDougall."

As Eden sent the jury off to begin deliberations he charged them to to provide recommendations as well as answer five questions: Who the deceased was, when they died, where, how and by what means, which includes homicide.

The doctor noted that, unlike in a criminal trial, a finding of homicide in an inquest is just a determination of fact.

"The one person who could perhaps give us the most insight … into how this death might have been prevented, is unable to assist us," he said.

"We now ask you to speak for Quinn MacDougall."