3 days after Tony Divers was shot by police, key questions remain
Kelly Bennett | CBC News | Posted: October 4, 2016 3:57 PM | Last Updated: October 4, 2016
Police have not said for sure if the man who was shot was found to have a gun
Key questions remain three days after a Hamilton police officer fatally shot a 36-year-old man before midnight Friday night.
The province's Special Investigations Unit has been called in to investigate. While it has not officially identified the man who died, online, family and friends mourn the loss of a man named Anthony "Tony" Divers.
Who was Divers? What happened earlier in the evening to lead to this point? Reports from an earlier assault suggested a man might be armed. Was he?
Here's what we know so far, and some of the questions that remain.
Who was killed?
Online, friends and family members identified the person who was shot as Anthony "Tony" Divers and expressed sadness and anger about his death.
Divers' sister said the family would speak about their loss and Divers' life after his funeral.
"Anthony was a beloved member of my family," said Alexandra McDonald, another member of Divers' family. "He was my baby cousin and we were all close."
The SIU did not confirm Divers was the man who was killed, saying the agency did not have permission from his family to do so.
A man named Anthony Divers pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received the equivalent of a 10-year sentence for his role in a 2002 fatal stabbing of a 26-year-old man, according to a Hamilton Spectator article from 2005.
Who's investigating?
The SIU investigates incidents involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Hamilton police may also undertake its own forensic investigation.
In addition to the officer who "discharged his firearm," the SIU has identified eight witness officers. A witness officer is someone "who, in the opinion of the SIU Director, is involved in the incident under investigation but is not a subject officer," said SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudon.
How did the string of events begin?
Police dispatched officers to 41 Catharine Street North to interview a woman who said she had been assaulted.
A manager at Dirty Dog Saloon at 41 Catharine Street North told CBC News that a woman who worked at the bar was scheduled to finish work at 11 p.m.
When she came out she walked toward a man and talked with him outside the Film Work Lofts, which fronts King William and Catharine streets.
Security footage from the condo building across the street shows their conversation and an altercation:
He hits her in the face and walks off.
She came back to the bar, "shaken up" after being hit, according to a manager who answered the phone at Dirty Dog Saloon. Police came to the intersection and interviewed her outside the bar.
Where was the shooting?
Meanwhile, sometime between that altercation and midnight, a man was seen walking near the Hamilton GO Centre, on Hunter Street at James Street, several blocks away.
Police recognized him as someone who might be connected to the assault report, according to details released by the SIU.
"Around the same time," the SIU said, "an officer recognized a man who was allegedly involved in the assault. The man was walking in the middle of James Street near the GO Station."
Photos of the scene show Diver being tended to just south of the underpass on James Street, near where buses turn into the GO centre.
What happened next?
A cab driver named Khalid Yousaf told the Hamilton Spectator late Friday night that he witnessed a man walking on James Street South and heard a police officer tell the man to stop walking.
When the man didn't stop, the officer followed and kept telling him to stop, the newspaper reported.
According to Yousaf's account in the newspaper, "the man turned to face the officer and stretched out his arms at his side and palms facing the officer."
"Then, he fired," Yousaf said, according to the newspaper. Yousaf said the man was shot twice.
Neither Yousaf nor administrators with Blue Line Cabs, the taxi company he works for, have responded to requests from CBC News for comment or additional detail.
Was the man armed?
The SIU said that when the call came in about the assault on Catharine St., there were reports the man who hit the woman had a gun. Neither police nor the SIU said where those "reports" originated.
Neither local police nor the SIU have said if the man who was shot was found to have a gun.
The SIU says: "In order to maintain investigate integrity and to prevent tainting witness evidence, the SIU cannot offer further details."
The account from Yousaf in the newspaper does not mention anything about a gun.
When was this?
Police say the call for the assault came in around 11 p.m. But security footage time-stamped around 11:34 p.m. from the condo building across the street shows the security guard and a man talking and then he hits her and walks off.
The shooting happened closer to midnight, though neither police nor the SIU have included an exact time.
What don't we know?
The video, which was also supplied to police, clearly shows a man hitting the woman, wearing a t-shirt that says "SECURITY." We don't know whether the man knew the woman, or what was said between them before that.
As mentioned above, we don't know if the man who was killed was armed.
Police have also not said that the man seen in the security footage is the same man who was shot.
But the security footage shows a man in white pants, and the video of the man receiving CPR on James St. S. shows him wearing white pants.