Police knew of the mental illness before shooting this man according to his Family.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/854757--police-knew-of-mental-illness-before-fatal-shooting-family?bn=1

Brendan Kennedy
Staff Reporter

The family of the 25-year-old Pickering man shot dead by police Sunday say they called police because they wanted help for their loved one, who suffered from mental illness.

In a statement released Tuesday, the family of Reyal Jensen Jardine-Douglas said they called police and told them Jardine-Douglas had boarded a TTC bus heading southbound on Victoria Park, and that he suffered from mental illness.

“In the early afternoon of Sunday 29th Aug. 2010, Reyal’s family called 911 from the intersection of Lawrence Ave. E. and Victoria Pk. Ave, seeking assistance in getting Reyal to a hospital to address mental health problems he was experiencing, including paranoia,” reads the statement released Tuesday by the family’s lawyer, Glenn Stuart. “... The dispatcher was told on more than one occasion of Reyal’s mental health condition.”

The family said Jardine-Douglas was not exhibiting any violent behaviour when they called police.

On Sunday, Jardine-Douglas was shot by a Toronto police officer after he fled from the Victoria Park No. 24 bus when it was pulled over by police north of Eglinton Ave. E. at about 3:10 p.m.

Witnesses said police cruisers boxed in the bus and a man bolted through the rear as officers boarded through the front door.

According to one witness, three shots were fired in a confrontation. Jardine-Douglas was pronounced dead at Sunnybrook hospital about an hour later.

A knife was recovered at the scene.

Jardine-Douglas’s family was waiting with other police officers at the corner of Lawrence Ave. E. and Victoria Park Ave. — just blocks away— when they learned he had been shot.

“They learned of the shooting from the officers who were with them at that intersection at that time,” Stuart said.

Jardine-Douglas suffered from paranoia among other mental-health issues, Stuart said, but refused to go into greater detail, citing the family’s request for privacy.

“The family is taking time to grieve its loss, and I don’t think they necessarily want to engage in the media to any great length,” he said. “There were certainly concerns and they were making efforts to get him treatment for that.”

The family’s statement calls into question the Toronto police’s explanation that officers were responding to a report of an “incident” on the bus.

Toronto police could not immediately confirm whether or not they were responding to Jardine-Douglas’s family’s call or if there was a separate call from the bus.

The statement also describes how the family attempted to have Jardine-Douglas’s mental illness treated in the days before he was killed.

“Reyal had been taken by the family to a physician on 27th August. On the following day, he was taken to a hospital, but they were referred to a second one, when the first one informed the family that it did not have the resources at that time to assist. Reyal was noncooperative with the medical personnel on both of these attempts at intervention. The family was continuing to try to have Reyal obtain appropriate medical treatment on Sunday, August 29th, which led them to follow him to the intersection and their call to 911.”

Toronto police will not comment on the shooting while it is being investigated by the Special Investigations Unit, the provincial agency called in to investigate all incidents involving police that result in serious injury or death.

SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudon said Monday that a Toronto police officer is being investigated in the shooting. His name is not being released.

The officer’s lawyer, Joseph Markson, said his client “stopped a potentially lethal threat to the lives of passengers on the bus” and he fired in self defence.

An autopsy on Jardine-Douglas is scheduled for Tuesday.
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Honestly I am not liking this situation. Why did the Police not taser the young man as opposed to shooting him dead?

:suspect:

How sad.

I wonder what happened on the bus, they say a knife was found on the scene. Still not a reason to shoot someone while they are running away.

I was at that intersection an hour after it happened, police had the road cordoned off and I said to my hubby "I bet someone was shot" then turned on the news and sure enough there was a shooting. :o
The news report also said there was an altercation on the bus prior to the cop shooting him.