'I don't know what I'm going to do. I lost my brother': Andrew Loku's family seeks answers at inquest
Lorenda Reddekopp | CBC News | Posted: June 14, 2017 1:52 AM | Last Updated: June 14, 2017
'He was just a happy person who just got pushed too far,' Loku's nephew says
Rose Mono remembers talking on the phone with her younger brother, Andrew Loku, and him singing Christmas songs or African music.
She travelled across the country to try to learn more about what happened to him this week at the inquest into his fatal shooting by Toronto police.
"He was a good boy," she said in an interview with CBC Toronto. She explained that they frequently chatted on the phone, though they hadn't seen each other in person since 2012 when Loku visited her and her family in Saskatoon.
As she recalled more, it got to be too much. She broke down, sobbing.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I lost my brother."
Her son, Mono Alam, embraced her.
The 27-year-old travelled with his mother to Toronto to be at the inquest.
'I didn't see it in him'
He also can't comprehend how things veered so out of control on July 5, 2015, with Loku threatening his neighbours with a hammer and then police responding. An officer fired two shots that night, killing Loku. The province's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), concluded the officer fired after Loku refused an order to drop the hammer. Police were cleared of any wrongdoing.
"I didn't see it in him. He was just a happy person who just got pushed too far," Alam said.
The inquest has heard Loku had ongoing complaints about noise from his upstairs neighbours. He tried to avoid the noise by sleeping in the laundry room of his apartment building.
Loku had also been diagnosed with PTSD, after having been kidnapped and tortured in Sudan, before coming to Canada as a refugee.
Alam is frustrated after sitting in on two days of the inquest.
"We didn't even get to hear who shot him. It's shocking."
The name of the officer who killed Loku has never been publicized. The names of the two officers who responded to the call are redacted in the SIU's report.
They've since been named at the inquest as Const. Andrew Doyle and Const. Haim Queroub, though which one fired the shots has not been clarified.
Alam would like an apology and "just the truth," he said. "Like, this was racist. We just want to hear that."
He and his mother worry about Loku's five children, who he financially supported and dreamed of bringing to Canada.
"They're going to be homeless," said Mono. "They used to be sleeping in a good place. Now they're sleeping on the floor."
Tuesday, the inquest heard from mental health expert Jennifer Chambers, executive director of the Empowerment Council at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
Mental health expert suggests changes to police responses
Chambers suggested police training may need to change, to ensure officers hear directly from those who've had mental health episodes.
"If you only ever meet people on the worst day of their lives, you're going to have a bad impression," she told the court.
Chambers also recommended officers change their approach to people in crisis, especially if calling out to drop a weapon isn't working.
"Ideally, we ask them to approach with a 'what's going on, can I help you?'" she told the inquest.
Chambers suggested shields could come in handy. They're used by officers in Britain, allowing them to protect themselves without relying on their firearms.
Another witness, currently a Toronto Police inspector, argued that officers could use mental health information to be better prepared on a call.
'Everything I did was above board': police officer who tried to view video
Insp. Peter Moreira arrived on scene that night after the shooting occurred and tried to gain access apartment surveillance video of the shooting, together with the building's superintendent.
The SIU report on the shooting that was made public redacted Moreira's name, but former SIU director Tony Loparco harshly criticized the officer's actions that night, arguing that the behaviour "detracts from community confidence" in an independent investigation.
Moreira told the coroner's jury he was just doing his job by securing evidence and trying to ensure the video wouldn't be lost.
"Everything I did was above board. There was no intent in my part to do anything malicious," he said. "I think I did what was right."
In the end, though, Moreira says he couldn't view the video anyway. The apartment superintendent didn't know the password.
The two officers who responded to the shooting are expected to testify on Wednesday.