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Torres |2005: From
Saskatoon to LA, people are resisting police abuse
Keldon McMillan
Another cop
murder, another no-fault inquiry
- Man spoke of suicide
before fatal confrontation
- McMillan put blame on
estranged wife: inquest
Lori Coolican of The StarPhoenix,
November 26, 2002
Keldon McMillan talked about
killing himself several times in the weeks before he was shot
to death in a harrowing confrontation with Saskatoon police near
Wakaw, the inquest into his death heard Monday.
Just hours before he led police
on a high-speed chase on May 20, 2001, McMillan told his newly
estranged wife Kim Clayton it was time for him to end his life
-- and it would be her fault.
"He indicated that I would
be the one carrying the guilt for that," Clayton testified.
Though she did not specify
the source of their marital problems, Clayton said she decided
to leave her husband on May 18, after a particularly nasty fight
in front of their three-year-old daughter.
She had only recently learned
that their newly built home on Beerling Crescent in northeast
Saskatoon was up for foreclosure, and that financial problems
with his business, McMillan Homes, were more severe than he would
admit, Clayton said.
She decided to take their daughter
to spend the long weekend at the home of Greg Mahar and Sheila
Chonacher, who had been friends with the couple for several years.
McMillan called the home looking for her at about 2 a.m., then
came over to try and convince her to come home, the jury heard.
When she refused and the argument
became heated, she went to call 911. At that moment, McMillan
made a chilling prediction.
"I heard him say that
if I called the police somebody was going to die . . . he said
that if the police came there was going to be a shootout,"
Clayton said.
She knew he sometimes went
hunting with his father, but he had promised not to keep weapons
in the house. She did not know he owned a handgun, she testified.
On May 19, city police officers
spoke to her about obtaining an emergency intervention order,
then escorted her home to pick up some clothing. McMillan could
not be found.
The next evening, Mahar called
police to let them know McMillan was on the phone with Clayton
and was likely at the home on Beerling Crescent.
Just as police arrived and
began to surround the house to speak with him, he drove his truck
out of the garage and cut through the unfinished yard onto an
adjoining street. Three city police cruisers followed onto Highway
41.
McMillan avoided one RCMP spike
belt during the high-speed chase that followed over the next
80 kilometres, but a second one flattened three of his tires.
Saskatoon police Const. Kenneth
King testified McMillan got out of his truck and fired his handgun
once into the air almost immediately after he came to a stop
several metres from the road's edge, then began walking along
the side of a field.
Three city police officers
were ranged along the highway's edge, weapons drawn. McMillan
ignored repeated commands to drop his gun, so a police dog, Cyr,
was ordered to attack, King said.
Cyr was only a few metres away
when McMillan raised his pistol and shot twice. Both bullets
struck, but the dog still managed to close the distance and bite
him once, King said.
"After he shoots the dog,
he looks up to the next threat and it's us three, positioned
along the ditch," King recalled. "I believe he shot
twice at the dog and once at us."
King and another city police
officer fired a total of 16 shots from their service revolvers,
while a third fired four shotgun blasts. None of the RCMP officers
at the scene fired their weapons.
Only the shotgun hit its target,
leaving eight pellets in McMillan's chest, pelvis and one leg.
He died at the scene within minutes.
A six-member coroner's jury
is expected to spend the rest of this week hearing the circumstances
of McMillan's death. They are expected to rule on the time, place
and cause of death, and may make recommendations on how to prevent
similar tragedies, but they may not assign civil or criminal
blame.
Several family members, including
McMillan's mother Victoria, attended the inquest Monday. They
have questioned why police chased McMillan, suggesting his death
was racially motivated and could have been avoided if they had
backed away and let him cool off.
The family declined comment.
Man
given chance to surrender: cop; Backing off was not an option,
inquest hears
Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix,
November 27, 2002
The Saskatoon police officer
who fired the shotgun blast that ended Keldon McMillan's life
in a darkened field near Wakaw had no idea McMillan had just
killed a police dog, the inquest into McMillan's death heard
Tuesday.
Const. Gary David testified
he had been on the scene beside Highway 41 for less than a minute
when McMillan, who was walking into a field with a pistol in
one hand, spun around and fired twice in his direction. David
only saw muzzle flashes.
"I was faced with the
threat of being shot," he testified.
A police dog named Cyr, that
was running to attack McMillan, took the bullets instead. David
said he did not know the dog had been hit until later. He and
two other officers opened fire, but only his shots struck McMillan.
Even as he lay face down on
the ground with eight shotgun pellets in his body, the 33-year-old
home builder raised his gun as though taking aim once again,
David testified. Another officer jumped on McMillan's hand, pinning
it to the ground until he was handcuffed. He died seconds later.
David, a 13-year veteran who
teaches an officer safety course dealing with high-risk situations,
told the inquest the city police officers at the scene acted
in perfect accordance with their training. They gave McMillan
every possible opportunity to end the situation without violence,
even though he'd already fired his gun into the air once, he
said.
McMillan died of his wounds
at about 10 p.m. on May 20, 2001, after leading city police and
the RCMP on a high-speed chase from his home in northeast Saskatoon.
A six-member coroner's jury is hearing the circumstances of the
incident in Court of Queen's Bench this week.
McMillan was depressed over
marital and financial problems, had repeatedly threatened suicide
in the three weeks before the incident, and had said there would
be a shootout if police were called, witnesses have testified.
Dr. Rani Kanthan, the pathologist
who conducted McMillan's autopsy, testified his blood alcohol
level was about .13 -- approaching twice the legal limit for
driving -- at the time of his death.
Traces of anabolic steroids
and cocaine were also found in his system, but she was unable
to determine when he may have taken them. The cocaine could have
been taken anytime in the previous 10 days, she said.
A group of McMillan's relatives
are attending the inquest, but declined comment. Shortly after
the incident, they said police could have saved McMillan's life
by backing off and giving him some space.
Because McMillan was armed
and the standoff took place near a farmhouse, that was simply
not in the cards, David said. "For us to let him leave that
area with a weapon was not appropriate."
The McMillan family's lawyer,
Marty Mimuk, spent several hours cross-examining city police
Const. Kenneth King, a senior officer who was on the scene, about
the procedures police followed at McMillan's home prior to the
chase, and at the scene of the shooting.
Police had already seized guns
from the house the previous day and did not know if McMillan
had more, so it was too risky to just walk up to his house and
ring the bell, King said. McMillan took off in his truck before
they could surround the house and call him.
"There was no time. Absolutely
none," he said.
Feb. 4,
2002: An inquest has been
ordered into Melvin Bigsky's death.
A few days later a similar inquest was ordered for McMillan.
As is common with these inquests, they are not allowed to find
fault or lay charges although they are commonly used later to
absolve everyone concerned of responsibility. They can also make
recommendations but police in Saskatchewan pay no attention to
recommendations. See Zoorkan and Dueck
in the Kim Cooper case
Violent
death recounted: RCMP pepper-spray, beat victim before shooting,
friend saysApr. 30,
2001 | the
Wegner inquest | RCMP attack FSIN
|
Coroner to probe RCMP shooting
The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon),
July 23, 2002
An inquest into the death of
Keldon Garfield McMillan will take place beginning Nov. 25 at
the Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon.
McMillan was fatally shot on
May 19, 2001, during an altercation with Saskatoon city police
and the RCMP. The shooting occurred east of Saskatoon, on Highway
41, about 10 kilometres from Wakaw.
The inquest has been ordered
by the chief coroner for Saskatchewan. The presiding coroner
will be Douglas Kovatch of Regina.
Inquests are open to the public.
Evidence is given before a six-person jury, summoned at random.
In addition to establishing
when and where the death occurred and the medical cause of death,
the coroner's jury may make recommendations to prevent similar
deaths in the future.
- Grieving family question
tactics
- Police shooting unnecessary:
mother
By Jason Warick of The StarPhoenix,
May 23, 2001
The high-speed chase and armed
standoff that ended in the police shooting of Keldon McMillan
was not necessary, and officers should be reprimanded for such
aggressive tactics, says McMillan's mother.
"I'm blaming this on (the
police). They killed my son - murderers. None of this should
have happened. Something's got to be done," Victoria McMillan
said in an emotional interview Tuesday afternoon in the living
room of her Westmount-area home, where her only son grew up.
"He was a good son. We're
so proud of him. Now he's gone."
McMillan's body will be returned
to the family this morning. Victoria McMillan said they have
been discussing arrangements with the family of McMillan's wife,
Kim, who could not be reached Tuesday.
Victoria McMillan said the
families have a good relationship and "are giving each other
moral support."
Police went to Keldon McMillan's
Beerling Crescent home Sunday night to seize a suspected store
of firearms, as well as serve him with an order barring him from
contact with his wife.
When McMillan arrived home,
he didn't get out of his vehicle. Instead, he drove through his
yard and fled in his truck out to Highway 41 toward Wakaw with
three city police cars in pursuit.
His truck was disabled by a
police spike belt placed by RCMP and came to a stop roughly 10
kilometres west of Wakaw. According to police, McMillan got out
of the truck and fired warning shots. He ignored commands to
drop his handgun and then shot a police dog when it attacked
him.
McMillan then pointed the gun
toward the officers and was shot and killed, said police. They
would not say which of the 11 RCMP and Saskatoon city police
present fired or how many bullets were discharged.
"Eleven against one. I
call them a killing squad. They're more worried about that damned
dog," Victoria McMillan said before breaking down crying.
She was comforted by her daughters, cousins and more than a dozen
other relatives gathered at the family home.
She and other family members
question the need for a police chase, when the main objective
was to seize the guns in the house.
"They should have taken
the guns (out of the house) and let him go and cool off,"
said McMillan's aunt, Beverly Gardipy.
"He's not the type to
do this. He didn't snap. They pushed him to this."
Once the chase had ended and
McMillan's truck was disabled in the middle of an open field,
police should have been patient and simply stayed back, the family
maintains. Instead, they yelled orders at him to drop his weapon,
attacked him with a police dog and then shot him when he pointed
the gun toward police.
They also question why police
had to station themselves close enough to McMillan to fear being
shot with a handgun. Family members say he would have calmed
down if police had kept their distance.
"They should have contacted
me and his father. We could have talked to him, told him to give
the police the gun," said Victoria McMillan.
Saskatoon city police Chief
Dave Scott and RCMP Sgt. Ron Toogood said there are no indications
police acted improperly, but they'll wait until the investigation
is complete to comment in detail.
City police Staff Sgt. Gary
Lewis said the officer on the scene makes the decision whether
to begin a chase. Once the chase begins, the "pursuit policy"
requires a call to a supervisor to get instructions.
He said there are so many scenarios
that defining exactly when to chase would be impossible. "But
if somebody runs a stop sign, you're probably not going to end
up in hot pursuit," Lewis said. "It will escalate as
the offence increases - armed robbery or murder or something
like that."
Lewis said police departments
all over Canada wrestle with the issue of police chases because
of the potential risks to bystanders as well as officers.
Lewis said police try to limit
the number of cars involved in a chase to minimize the risk to
all involved. Speed, traffic conditions, and other factors are
taken into account.
The McMillan family also believes
the shooting was racially motivated. McMillan was a status Indian,
as his mother's roots are in the Poundmaker First Nation. They
noted that McMillan was the second aboriginal man shot by police
in a month outside Saskatoon. Melvin Bigsky was shot in late
April after he rammed a police car with his truck and physically
assaulted the officer.
"He was born an Indian
- he died like an Indian," Victoria McMillan said.
"The police won't say
it's racist, but deep down it is," said cousin Deanne Kasokeo.
However, Toogood said initial
reports indicated McMillan was Caucasian. "Whether a white
male, Native, Scotsman, East Indian, would have made no difference.
The policy does not differentiate between race and nationality.
It's based on the situation and the actions that person took."
McMillan was born and raised
in Saskatoon, but worked for a few years laying linoleum for
houses on the Poundmaker reserve near North Battleford. He then
started his own business, building homes, which included his
own and several others on Beerling Crescent.
Peter West, a friend and electrician
who was contracted by McMillan's home-building business, said
McMillan was "obviously at the breaking point."
McMillan Homes went bankrupt
earlier this year. McMillan "worked damn hard" but
tried to expand too fast, West said.
West said he "can't help
but think (police) over-reacted, but who knows in the heat of
the moment."
Standoff eighth fatal
police shooting
Two recent incidents highlight
issue of police using deadly force
By Greg Pender of The StarPhoenix,
May 23, 2001
Keldon McMillan became the
eighth person killed by police in Saskatchewan during the last
decade, and the first involving Saskatoon city officers since
1982.
McMillan died in a shootout
with police along Highway 41 Sunday, the same strip of asphalt
along which Melvin Bigsky was killed by an RCMP member just 23
days earlier.
Bigsky had assaulted the officer
and allegedly rammed his truck into the police cruiser just prior
to being shot.
The two incidents coming back-to-back
have raised the issue of police using deadly force. Until this
spring police had been able to avoid such drastic action for
almost 20 years.
"I don't know what to
attribute that to, I think it's just the fortunate luck of the
draw," said Saskatoon city police Const. Grant Obst, former
president of the Canadian Police Association.
"There have been situations
where we have been very close though. Everybody's kind of in
shock.
"These are the kinds of
things you hope will never happen but you are aware they might
happen. Even if it's 100 per cent justified, as they think it
is in this case, it's just very hard."
In 1982 a sniper with the city's
emergency response team killed Richard Landrie in the course
of ending a hostage-taking incident.
During the last 10 years, Saskatchewan
RCMP have been involved in two incidents involving the use of
deadly force.
Donald Mercredi, a 23-year-old
resident of the Fond-du-Lac Indian reserve in northern Saskatchewan
was killed after apparently lunging at officers with a pair of
knives on May 11, 1994. Brent Nowlin, 25, was shot by Mounties
in North Battleford in June 1993 after shooting at them with
a rifle from his car.
There have been three fatal
shootings by Regina police in the last decade, including that
of Josh Engdahl, 16, on Sept. 10, 1998; Denice Cyr, 20, on Jan.
28, 1996, and Alexander McDonald, 26, on Jan. 21, 1993.
Engdahl and McDonald, both
armed with knives, were shot after confronting police, while
Denice Cyr was killed after shooting a .22 rifle at police.
Prince Albert police were last
involved in a fatal shooting in March 1995 when Floyd Piche was
killed while brandishing a knife at a nearby officer.
Melvin
Bigsky shooting | Vernon Crowe shooting in Regina |
Darrell Night | Hatchen
and Munson trial | Natives |
| Immediately following the
McMillan shooting, there was an outcry of sympathy for Cyr, the
police dog. The Saskatoon police posted a page (they have since
removed it) in his remembrance. An anonymous donor provided bullet
proof vests for the dog and a fund to keep the dogs vested up
in future. Later they would cold-bloodly shoot a dog suspected
of guarding a yard where a suspect might or might not be: See
Angels
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
