Police officers involved in the operation that claimed Riley Fairholm’s life in 2018 described the sequence of events as they experienced them as part of the coroner’s public inquest set to shed light on the young man’s death.
On the night of July 25, 2018, Sergeant Wallace McGovern received a call from a man indicating that an armed individual was driving near the Lac-Brome IGA and he was shouting. He did not know then that his interlocutor was Riley Fairholm.
Police called two more teams for reinforcements. Six policemen aboard three patrol cars went to the scene and saw the suspect at the corner of Victoria Street and Knowlton Road. While walking, Riley Fairholm brandished a weapon in all directions and aimed officers at the motionless vehicles, police report.
Sergeant McGovern said he heard him shout I have been waiting for this moment for five years. Police said he spoke to the young man through a loudspeaker, and asked him two or three times to drop his weapon.
The suspect shouted louder and continued to target the officers, according to the sergeant. “I wanted to save him,” Sergeant McGovern recalled. He then said he heard gunshots without knowing where it came from and he saw Riley Fairholm on the ground. A colleague fired.
Looking back, the sergeant felt that he could do nothing about the circumstances. The threat is real, he said. He also spoke to the victim’s mother Tracy Wing, who told her in English that “society is faced with many mental health issues, we need to do better”. The sergeant’s colleagues also said they felt their lives were in danger in the afternoon.
When asked if the training in the use of force prepared them well for such an event, they answered it in the affirmative.
The firing officer is due to be heard on Wednesday.
There is information from Guylaine Charette
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
