'You saved your life,' RCMP officer tells Smyth the day after he fatally shot Don Dunphy

A police video at the inquiry into Don Dunphy's shooting death shows police confirming to Const. Joe Smyth that the rifle Dunphy allegedly pointed at Smyth before he opened fire was loaded.

RCMP recorded the video on April 6, 2015, a day after Smyth fatally shot Don Dunphy in his Mitchells Brook home.

Your account of what you gave us and what we know, is pretty accurate.- RCMP officer

It was Smyth's first statement to investigators after the shooting. He gave his account of what happened but he also asked some questions.

"Are you able to confirm how many times I did hit him [Dunphy]?" asked Smyth, who was told that the autopsy hadn't been completed yet.

Smyth persisted, asking, "My firearm … was it four rounds missing from that?"

One of the two officers interviewing Smyth responded, "I would say trust your memory. Your account of what you gave us and what we know, is pretty accurate."

Smyth nodded and said, "I want to ask you if his firearm was loaded but I don't know if I want to know the answer because for me it changes how I'm going to feel. If it was loaded, I can say with some degree of confidence what his intentions were."

RCMP officers leave

At that point one RCMP officer said, "Give us one second," and they left the room.

When they returned, one of the RCMP officers, Monty Henstridge, said, "You were about to ask a question … whether or not there was a round in the chamber.  So I just wanted to check with Steve [Burke, the lead investigator] and the team commander if it is OK to answer that question. If you want to know the answer to that question we'll tell you the answer."

Did he want to die?- Joe Smyth

"I don't know if I want to know," said Smyth.

"'Cause I feel like if the answer is no, then I don't know what he was doing. Did he want to die? Or was he just trying to intimidate me? Did he even know I was carrying a firearm?"

Smyth continued, "If it was loaded, I walk out of here feeling that I saved my life."

At that point, the RCMP answered Smyth's question.

"You saved your life," said Henstridge.

But Smyth continued as if he hadn't heard.

"If it's not loaded, I feel like I just f**king killed a guy," he said.

Henstridge repeated, "You saved your life."

Smyth said, "OK."

"'Cause I don't want you leaving here dwelling on that," said Henstridge. "I'd be asking the same question if I was sitting where you are but I'd also want to not know if it was empty. There was one [bullet] in the chamber."

Smyth asked, "What about his daughter?"

"She has a lot of questions. Some of her questions are relevant and some of them are not really relevant at all," said Henstridge. "She just wants answers as to what happened."

Henstridge then commented on Smyth's statement: "You gave an amazing account. That was incredible. I'm glad we waited, to be honest."

RCMP waited a day to get Smyth's statement

Police took a statement from Meghan Dunphy hours after her father was killed but waited a day to take a statement from Smyth.

Smyth drove to Mitchells Brook on April 5, 2015, to speak to Dunphy about tweets he wrote days earlier criticizing then-premier Paul Davis and other MHAs.

Smyth said he shot at Dunphy four times after Dunphy pulled a rifle on him.

The RCMP investigated the shooting and concluded Smyth used appropriate force and that no charges were warranted.

Inquiry hearings are scheduled to continue Wednesday with testimony from Burke, the RCMP's lead investigator of the Dunphy case.