'Shoot me' was among Andrew Loku's final words, officer says at inquest

"Come on, shoot me" were among some of Andrew Loku's final words before he was shot and killed by Constable Andrew Doyle in July of 2015, according to Constable Haim Queroub, the other officer who was there during the fatal encounter in 2015. 

Queroub testified Thursday at the inquest into the 46 year old man's death.

Queroub had only been with the Toronto Police Service for 11 weeks when the call came in that a man with a hammer was threatening to kill someone at an apartment building near Rogers Road and Caledonia Road.

Earlier in the week, the coroner's jury heard testimony that Loku suffered from PTSD from being kidnapped and tortured in Sudan.

When the two officers arrived after midnight on July 5, Loku was in the hallway upstairs about "20 feet away," said Queroub.

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​Constable Andrew Doyle testified Wednesday that he yelled "Sir," and Loku turned, revealing the hammer in his hand. 

Today, Queroub said it was then that he, just like Doyle, pulled out his firearm and pointed it at Loku. 

He said they both yelled a number of commands: "Stop! Police! Don't move! Drop the hammer!"

Queroub said Loku ignored the commands and started coming towards the officers. 

The officer testified Loku said, "What ya gonna do ... Come on ... Shoot me."

Two lawyers and a jury member asked Queroub about the order of those words and whether they were statements or questions.

Queroub said Loku said the words in that order but couldn't not give much more clarification.

During his testimony, Queroub maintained that he feared for his life and his partner's life.

He demonstrated how Loku began to lift the hammer up to around his shoulder "then from shoulder height it goes to overhead." 

Queroub said he stepped back and recalled Doyle doing the same thing. 

The officer said when Loku got between six to eight feet away his partner opened fire. 

"I begin to squeeze the trigger and at that time I heard two shots," he said.

Constable Andrew Doyle had fired his gun hitting Loku in the chest area.

Final moments

As Loku lay bleeding out in the hallway, Queroub said he was "in a state of shock."

He got on the police radio to dispatch and said "shots fired" twice.​

"I see them starting CPR," he said.

Loku would die from his injuries right there in that hallway.

Cause of death 

Dr. Toby Rose, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, testified she listed the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the chest.

She could not determine which bullet entered his body first but the "fatal wound" was caused by the bullet that hit several organs and went "through the lung, through the heart and into the back," she said.

She said the other "medically significant wound" involved the bullet entering the left chest and penetrating the left shoulder area.

Dr. Rose also testified that at the time of his death Loku had alcohol in his system, about four times the legal limit to drive.

De-escalation training

Loku's friend, Kiden Jonathan, is unimpressed with what she's hearing at the inquest.

Like many in Toronto's black community, she was angered that the province's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in the case, and that Doyle's name wasn't made public until the inquest was underway.

"Enough is enough" Jonathan told CBC Toronto. "No more killing of black people."

Jonathan said the officers testified they talked about how to get to the scene but not what they would do when they got there. 

"They took two minutes to plan how to get there safe and fast but only 30 seconds to shoot him."

Video footage showed in the courtroom earlier in the week the police interaction with Loku was about 21 seconds.

"There was no dialogue. There was no discussion," said Jonathan.

Queroub testified he had received training on interacting with people with mental health issues and implicit bias when dealing with race.

'I only wish that that night ended without tragedy.' 

At the police college he also received de-escalation training.

"Absolutely, that's forefront. That's mandatory," he said.

Yet he told the coroner's counsel Michael Blain that he had not considered whether Loku was in crisis or distress.

When asked by lawyer Anita Szigeti if he would do anything differently, he said  "going up those stairs and dealing with the same event, I wouldn't change."

Queroub however said he was changed by the "intense experience."

He said it made him grow "not only as a human being but as an officer."

"My sincerest apologies for the loss," he said when given the opportunity to give a message to Loku's family. 

"I only wish that that night ended without tragedy."