Deadly encounter with Craig McDougall 'didn't end the way we wanted it to'
Const. Tricia Zurawsky was one of three officers present when Craig McDougall was shot and killed in 2008
An officer involved in the fatal police shooting of Craig McDougall eight years ago said she empathized with a distraught family friend who heard the gunshot and was desperately trying to reach the young man's body.
"I remember feeling empathy for her," said Const. Tricia Zurawsky Wednesday at the inquest probing the death of the 26-year-old man at a Simcoe Street home on Aug. 2, 2008.
"For whatever reason, I had a connection with this lady at the door."
Nancy Mason, the girlfriend of McDougall's father at the time of the shooting, was trying to get out of the house through the front door to run toward McDougall, who was lying and bleeding on the front lawn.
"'What have you done?' I remember her saying that," said Zurawsky.
The inquest previously heard that Mason was the one who heard the gunshots and woke up McDougall's father, Brian, who was sleeping beside her in the upstairs bedroom.
On Tuesday, court heard the family inside were trying to push out through the front door, which the officers were holding closed. After the door came off the top hinge, Patrol Sgt. Curtis Beyak ordered the officers to cuff the witnesses to keep the situation under control.
"Everyone was very emotional," said Zurawsky, who cuffed Mason and sat her down on the front lawn.
"It didn't end the way we wanted it to," she told the court. "Our goal is to temporarily incapacitate the individual."
"Immediately in my mind I was thinking this is our stabber. He is going to run," she said.
The officers were responding to a report of a potential stabbing at the home. Zurawsky said she knew there was a family disturbance at that address earlier in the night, but that was the only information she had before arriving.
She told the court she continued to demand McDougall drop the knife, but he ignored her.
"[He was] stone cold — he looked right through me," she recalled.
Three police officers — Zurawsky, Beyak and Leishman — all testified that McDougall appeared to walk with a purpose, trying to get into the house.
She said she was standing by the fence gate getting ready to make chase when he turned and walked inside the yard.
"We've been pinned," she said and explained how she backed up away from him.
She said everything unfolded within seconds: Leishman fired the Taser, which failed, and Beyak fired the fatal shots.
"My fear was him entering the home, my fear was my safety," she said. "The option is not to run when you sign up for this job."
McDougall's uncle, John McDougall, is scheduled to testify on Thursday. He was in the house that night, before and after the shooting.
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