Fergus man's death by police could have been prevented: inquest

Warning: This article contain details and recorded police body-camera footage that may be disturbing to some.

FERGUS – Lawyers for the family of a Fergus man shot and killed by police three years ago said the recently completed coroner’s inquest into his death shows it could have been prevented. 

There were 15 jury recommendations resulting from the inquest into the death of Mathias Bunyan, including that OPP officers be instructed on the risks of using pepper spray on people in crisis and analyzing the body-worn camera footage from the fatal interaction to be used to inform training on conflict de-escalation.

The inquest was held over 10 days in December, concluding on Dec. 12, with 10 witnesses including Bunyan’s sister, members of the OPP who interacted with him directly, other OPP officials including a training officer, emergency room doctors from Groves hospital, a forensic toxicologist and a mental health nurse.

A coroner’s inquest is a public hearing conducted by a coroner before a jury of five community members to inform the public about the circumstances of a death. A jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing future similar deaths but the conclusions are not binding.

Bunyan was 31 years old when he was shot and killed by police in his Fergus apartment on Aug. 15, 2021.

Family members at the time told EloraFergusToday Bunyan was suffering from a mental health crisis when police visited his apartment on Belsyde Avenue for a reported domestic incident and they allege he was a victim of systemic police violence. 

A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation concluded no charges would be laid against the Wellington OPP officer who fatally shot Bunyan. 

The SIU report said police responded to the apartment after receiving a call about a domestic disturbance and possible mental health issues as a man was heard screaming and yelling inside a unit and unresponsive to a property manager who was trying to speak with him. 

After Bunyan had barricaded himself in a closet, he was pepper sprayed by police and came out with knives in his hand, according to the SIU report. Police then used conductive energy weapons before an officer used his gun and fired four shots. 

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bunyan’s family directed all media inquiries to their lawyer.

Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan’s family, said the family is still grieving but is taking solace in the facts of the case supporting the death being ruled a homicide. 

While it’s not the same as it is in the criminal context, Matthews explained a homicide ruling means the death was non-accidental and caused by somebody else, in this case by members of the OPP.

“In other words, this could have been prevented,” Matthews said. 

In this inquest, Matthews explained the jury had the “unique opportunity” of viewing body-worn camera footage and observed a first-person narrative as to what occurred when OPP attended Bunyan’s apartment.

“Mathias was experiencing a mental health crisis, he was passively resisting apprehension, he had not harmed himself and he was not representing an acute risk of harm to anybody else,” Matthews said. “Officers had decisions to make about how to respond to Mathias and what we learned is that police officers are taught nowadays that they can actually use time and distance and this usually has a higher chance of resulting in a safe apprehension.”

Matthews said this is not what police did in this case.

“They applied pepper spray and it caused a very chaotic scene where Mathias ended up losing his life,” Matthews said. “We hope that this body camera footage will be used in training for future scenario based training.”

Matthews said those decisions officers made included getting closer to Bunyan, opening his bedroom door and closet door when they could have “continued to negotiate with him through a closed door” and bought more time while an emergency response team was on its way. 

A court exhibit, obtained and viewed by EloraFergusToday, showed over an hour long body-worn camera video from one of the officers who responded to the scene.

It begins with officers inside the apartment building making contact with Bunyan before he shuts himself in his room. An officer noted he had two knives and they strategized about the best way to proceed. 

An OPP officer opens the bedroom door about 29 minutes in, asking Bunyan to come out of the closet with his hands up. The closet door is later opened by a police officer.

The officer and Bunyan talk back and forth with the officer asking him to come out and Bunyan refusing, making occasional threats to himself which he often takes back.

Pepper spray is first used without warning at about the 57-and-a-half minute mark following some commotion where Bunyan dropped a guitar. He is pepper sprayed again minutes later with no warning issued. 

Pepper spray was used a final time again without warning at the end of the video which resulted in Bunyan quickly exiting the closet and walking towards officers and the video ends.

Matthews said body-worn cameras will be an important piece of enhancing police transparency and accountability, noting there’s a lot more footage in the United States which often is used in Canadian police training.

“I think we’re now in an era where there will be more and more body-worn cameras issued to frontline officers,” Matthews said. 

“The OPP is amidst an operation to issue one to every frontline officer and we were fortunate in this case to have that evidence because it was critical evidence in this case. I think it shows what can go wrong when officers act quickly or refuse to wait or stop negotiating with an individual through closed doors.”

While the recommendations from the coroner’s inquest aren’t binding, Matthews said there is a unique added layer of these recommendations being jointly sought by all parties involved.

“Each of these recommendations were canvassed with the respective parties and their clients and they instructed them as being feasible,” Matthews said. “I think that also makes it more likely that these recommendations will be carried out.”

The jury’s 15 recommendations from the Mathias Bunyan inquest are:

To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health

• Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County including increasing the availability of patient-centered programs, the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment and increasing access to addictions resources
• Investigate increasing funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in similar areas of Ontario

To the government of Ontario

• Increase funding and resources to the OPP directed at ensuring crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at every detachment in Ontario
• Increase funding and resources to the OPP ensure emergency response team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner
• Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training

To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre

• Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint and confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before the person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment

To Homewood Health Centre

• Revise the Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Service mental health assessment by including screening questions related to gender dysphoria and gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide and self-harm risk factors

To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy

• Review and analyze the body-worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on conflict prevention and de-escalation, relational communication with persons in crisis, techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams and decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons including pepper spray

To the OPP

• Develop a process to provide body-worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training
• Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body-worn camera footage in police training in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy
• Reinforce the requirement that all OPP officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in their notes
• Ensure all OPP officers are instructed about the risks of using pepper spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis
• Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices
• Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training

To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General

• Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal force options that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induced crisis