Meghan Dunphy tells inquiry she believes police officer manipulated evidence after killing her father
Photos shown of Dunphy's home, including of the rifle he allegedly pointed at Newfoundland officer
Don Dunphy's daughter told a judicial inquiry Monday that she doesn't believe the police officer who fatally shot her father is telling the truth about what happened on Easter Sunday, 2015.
Meghan Dunphy is suggesting her father reached for a stick that he often carried for protection, and that Const. Joe Smyth, of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC), mistook it for a gun and then shot him.
"That's what I don't understand. There's no reason for my father to take a gun. He would have picked up his stick not a gun," said Meghan.
Judge Leo Barry asked Meghan if she believes Smyth manipulated evidence after the shooting. She responded "Yes," and suggested Smyth may have placed the gun beside her father to cover up that he shot a man for reaching for a stick.
Following a break, Meagan's lawyer Erin Breen asked her, "Would your father cooperate with a police officer if he was asked to produce firearms?" Meghan answered, "Yes."
Meghan Dunphy emotional during inquiry
Meghan Dunphy was the first witness at the St. John's inquiry into how RNC officer Joe Smyth shot her father at his home in Mitchells Brook, N.L. She broke down in tears soon after she took the stand.
Meghan said her father was a good-hearted man who smoked marijuana regularly to cope with pain, and that she quickly lost confidence in the police investigation into his April 2015 shooting death in a Newfoundland and Labrador town.
"He cared for me from the time my mother died. He was kind," she said through tears. "Sorry, I didn't expect this to happen so soon."
Dunphy, one of 57 witnesses scheduled to testify, was with her father for a meal earlier on the day of the shooting.
After he went home, she said, she first learned police were at her father's house when a friend sent her a text. She said she and her partner started to drive to her father's home and then she got another text that said someone was shot.
"I panicked a little," she said.
During her testimony, Dunphy was emphatic that when she arrived at her father's home after the shooting, she was told by RCMP officer Trevor O'Keefe "that it was about social media threats to the premier."
She said her husband also heard that.
Dunphy, 28, said she began to have doubts about the RCMP's investigation after she found her father's broken glasses in his home. The RCMP was called in to investigate the shooting, as it involved an officer on another force.
She testified she gave the glasses to the RCMP but said they dismissed her.
"I didn't think it was being investigated objectively. I felt the RCMP had already made their mind up," she said.
Unable to see father's body
Dunphy said she asked to see her father but never did before his body was cremated.
When she finally learned what had happened, she said, she was shocked.
"No one had warned me what he looked like – how many times he'd been shot," she said in between sobs.
Dunphy found out from the funeral director that her father had been shot in the head and said she felt she "wasn't treated fairly."
She hired St. John's lawyer Erin Breen to represent the Dunphy family shortly thereafter.
During cross-examination at the inquiry, Breen asked Dunphy whether RCMP told her to contact the office of the medical examiner.
Dunphy said no.
It was Breen — not police — who arranged for Dunphy to meet with provincial coroner Simon Avis about her father's body.
'Very vocal about his opinions'
When she first took the stand on Monday, Dunphy described her father as a caring man who struggled to make ends meet and who was "very vocal about his opinions."
She said there is no doubt he could be "confrontational" and that he sometimes asked her to leave his home when they argued.
"He could go from calm to talking loud and very enthusiastic, waving his arms," said Dunphy.
She said her father would call her right after they fought and say, "Let's get together tomorrow." She said her father would often express his opinion no matter who was speaking with him.
Dunphy said she knew the rifle her father is alleged to have pointed at Smyth was in his house, but didn't know if it worked or if it was loaded.
Meghan described how her father was "crushed" by a truck while he was working as a truck driver. He went back to work but couldn't continue because of his injuries. He was prescribed medical marijuana.
Smoked marijuana 'a lot'
"He smoked it a lot," she said. "I asked him not to smoke it when I was there and he agreed to do that."
Meghan said her father grew marijuana in his home and because of that, he worried about his security and kept a stick with him as protection "if anyone tries to steal his weed."
This is Don Dunphy's living room in Mitchells Brook on Easter Sun. 2015. The day he was fatally shot. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dunphy?src=hash">#dunphy</a> <a href="https://t.co/8Gere4UtkK">pic.twitter.com/8Gere4UtkK</a>
—@CBCMarkQuinnDunphy said she doesn't believe her father was mentally ill. She said she was "conflicted" about saying that because she can see how people looking at his home might think he wasn't well. Pain kept him from keeping up with cleaning his home but he was planning to do repairs before he died, Dunphy said.
Judge Leo Barry is presiding over the inquiry, which is being held at the former School for the Deaf in St. John's and could last next several months.
Barry said Monday he hopes to have the hearings completed by March 7.
Dunphy, 59, was fatally shot by Smyth, who at the time was involved with handling the security of then Premier Paul Davis.
Posts on Twitter triggered police visit
Smyth went to Dunphy's home in Mitchells Brook — about 100 kilometres southwest of St. John's — on an Easter Sunday to investigate after a member of the premier's staff flagged Dunphy's social media posts on Twitter as potentially threatening.
According to police reports, Smyth says he fired at Dunphy four times after Dunphy pointed a rifle at him.
Three of those bullets hit Dunphy — one in the chest and two struck his head.
Months after the shooting, Smyth sent an email to his colleagues about the incident. It was leaked to the media.
That email was discussed at the inquiry. Meghan took issue with this part of it:
"Although I cannot regret my actions last Sunday, I unequivocally wish I could have visited Mr. Dunphy at a point in his life where another level of intervention may have been possible," Smyth wrote.
Meghan Dunphy said it was unacceptable that Smyth said he "cannot regret his actions" when he was talking about killing another person.
At the first day of the inquiry hearings, Smyth's lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, said he had no questions for Dunphy.
The RCMP investigated the shooting. Its members determined there was no reason to lay charges against Smyth.
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