Jury makes 4 recommendations following inquest into death of Niagara man killed by police in 2021
CBC
Following an inquest into the death of a Niagara man killed by police, a jury has recommended better support for family members, witnesses and officers involved in fatalities.
A Niagara police constable shot and killed Martin Gordyn, 27, in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Jan 5, 2021.
According to chronology produced for the inquest, police chased Gordyn — who was driving a stolen truck — on and off from Hamilton through Niagara. Eventually, officers forced his truck off the road and surrounded him by Lundy’s Lane and Corwin Avenue.
It was there that an officer shot him while he was still in the truck. The officer thought Gordyn may have been reaching for a gun but was rummaging through a bag, the inquest heard.
A statement of facts produced for the inquest stated Gordyn was pronounced dead in hospital that afternoon, and the inquest jury concluded a gunshot killed him.
Because Gordyn died at the hands of an officer, an inquest into his death was mandatory under Ontario's Coroners Act. During such procedures, lawyers for the parties — including police, jails, hospitals, coroners and family members of the deceased — ask questions of witnesses, who can include eyewitnesses, experts, and institutional workers and officials.
Inquest juries issue verdicts on how subjects died, and are encouraged to make non-binding recommendations to prevent future, similar deaths. They do not make legal findings of guilt.
A separate third-party review of Gordyn’s death, conducted by Ontario’s police watchdog the Special Investigations Unit, found there were “no reasonable grounds” to believe the officer who shot him was guilty of a crime.
In a review published December 2021, director Joseph Martino wrote that an officer shot Gordyn in the back while he was rifling through a duffle bag. Concerned he had grabbed a gun, the officer told him to stop before firing at him twice, Martino said, adding that although Gordyn was unarmed, it was a reasonable mistake and the officer was justified in attempting to defend themself.
Martino noted a passenger in Gordyn’s vehicle told investigators that Gordyn was actually holding a butane torch used to vaporize and inhale drugs, which “could conceivably have been misperceived as a gun in the fraught circumstances that existed at the time.”
With his death, Gordyn left behind his partner, two step children and a new baby, a son now five.
The inquest into Gordyn’s death took place virtually in early December.
At the end, the jury issued two recommendations to the Niagara Regional Police Service:
Jurors also gave the Government of Ontario two recommendations:
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