'I still feel that gun pointed at me': RNC officer re-enacts shooting of Don Dunphy
Mark Quinn | CBC News | Posted: January 18, 2017 11:30 PM | Last Updated: January 19, 2017
On April 10, 2015, Const. Joe Smyth walked investigators through what happened days earlier
In a chilling video made just days after Don Dunphy died, the RNC officer who shot and killed him gives a detailed re-enactment of what he says happened in Dunphy's home.
Const. Joe Smyth, 38, was cool and precise when he described the shooting at the inquiry into Dunphy's death Wednesday.
He gave a detailed account of why he opened fire and ultimately killed the 59-year-old Mitchells Brook man inside his home on Easter Sunday 2015, saying Dunphy pointed a gun at him.
He spoke more freely during the re-enactment, done for investigators on April 10, 2015, just days after the shooting.
At this point, I thought I was getting shot. - Joe Smyth
Smyth was at Dunphy's home to talk to him about his posts on social media about then-premier Paul Davis and other provincial politicians. At the time, Smyth was a member of the premier's security detail.
The excerpt above of a 48-minute video shot by RCMP investigators begins after Smyth said Dunphy pointed a 22-calibre rifle at him.
"At this point, I thought I was getting shot," said Smyth.
"I was kind of preparing for a bullet and my instinct was to put my hand out like a ball was coming at me and with hindsight that sounds so stupid because it's going to do nothing."
After that, Smyth says he acted to protect himself.
"I went directly for my firearm but I'm also wanting to get out of the room but I'm also addressing the fact that there's a gun coming towards me. It's really hard for me to remember how I accessed my firearm because to me it was just one solid motion of drawing it."
Then Smyth describes what he says Dunphy did.
"The gun is coming towards me and he's bringing it from his right and I've still got my hand out," he said.
Smyth recounts that he said "No" repeatedly.
"I felt like it was a plea for him not to shoot me," he said. I felt like this is really going to hurt. A bullet is going to enter me and this is really going to f---king hurt."
Time slowed down
Smyth says he knows it happened quickly but it was like time slowed down.
"It was completely instinctive … you're going to be shot — you better start shooting back."
Smyth says he didn't raise his service pistol to shoot but shot from a lower position around his waist or chest.
After that first shot, Smyth says he could see that the gun was still pointed at him.
"The second shot. I still feel that gun pointed at me. Time is stopped at this point while also going very, very fast. I don't know how to properly explain that ... I'm moving towards the door. I've locked out in a shooting position and I'm going for his centre mass,"
Third and fourth shots
But it wasn't over. Smyth says he continued to shoot as he made his way out of Dunphy's living room.
"I still feel there's a threat to me. I raise and I aim towards his head and I don't know if that shot hit. I felt like that shot was not on target. To me it hadn't had any impact. What I had done so far had done nothing and I was still in imminent danger," said Smyth.
"I shot for his head again. I know that that shot connected because I can still see his head move from that shot and then in another instant I'm out of the room."
The re-enactment videotaped on April 10, 2015 was the second time Smyth re-enacted the shooting for investigators. Police say it was redone because there was a problem with the audio on the first recording.