RCMP to brief Don Dunphy's family on investigation into his death
Independent review was handed over to N.L. RCMP in August
The key players in the Don Dunphy shooting investigation will receive formal briefings from the RCMP later this week, CBC News has learned.
Sources confirm that Meghan Dunphy — Don Dunphy's daughter — and her lawyer Erin Breen will be briefed on the RCMP's findings from their investigation into the the Easter Sunday 2015 shooting. Joe Smyth, the RNC officer who shot and killed Don Dunphy, will also get a briefing from investigators.
Sources say the RCMP is expected to make a public statement after those briefings are complete.
Don Dunphy, 59, was shot and killed by Smyth on April 5, 2015. Smyth visited Don Dunphy at his home in Mount Carmel-Mitchells Brook to conduct a threat assessment after Dunphy directed a series of tweets at then-premier Paul Davis and former cabinet minister Sandy Collins. Smyth was assigned to the police unit that provided security to the premier at the time.
In the early days of the investigation, the RCMP said Dunphy was shot after aiming a loaded rifle at Smyth, but questions about those circumstances have swirled among the public since that day. The RCMP finished its investigation in January. But Justice Minister Andrew Parsons asked the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to review the RCMP's work.
That external review was finished in August and sent to the RCMP for review.
At that time, Breen said it was important to her client that an independent review into the RCMP investigation of Dunphy's death be performed, and that his family was still looking for answers as to what happened on that day.