But no recommendations in shooting
December 10, 2009
Barbara Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Posted by CAAI News Media)
A coroner's jury made no recommendations yesterday about the police killing of a disturbed man with an axe and a knife who lunged at two officers outside a Parkdale Avenue North pool hall.
Soun Saing, a 46-year-old Cambodian refugee, was shot and killed by two Hamilton police officers responding to an emergency call from the owner of M & J Billiards, who had just been attacked by a man with a hatchet.
Saing, who lived on the third floor of the same building, entered the pool hall shortly before closing at 2 a.m. on April 6, 2007, and without provocation, attacked the owner, Gord Tekatch, then 62.
As Tekatch, who was bleeding from his hands and forehead, spoke to the 911 operator, Saing could be heard that Good Friday morning to shout: "I am the holy king."
Hamilton constables Ryan James and Ryan Tocher arrived at 2:09 a.m. to find Saing trying to get into Taps Tavern on the ground floor.
Saing turned and raised the hatchet in his left hand. The officers drew their guns and ordered him to drop the weapon. Saing then reached inside his jacket, pulled out a knife, and charged at James.
The three-day inquest presided over by coroner Dr. John Carlisle heard each officer fired three rounds from his Glock pistol. Two bullets hit Saing in the torso and another grazed his back.
The deceased man's sister, Puch Saing-Ly, said she does not believe her brother had to die that morning. She believes the two officers were younger, bigger and stronger than him and could have overpowered and disarmed him.
However, John Weiler, a use-of-force instructor at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, testified that new recruits are taught to never grapple with a person who has a sharp-edged weapon. It's too difficult and risky to grab a knife from someone, he said. Officers are trained to draw their firearms and shoot, if necessary.
Saing-Ly said she and her brother came to Canada as refugees in 1986 to escape the violence in Cambodia that continued after the Vietnamese drove the Khmer Rouge from power.
"We tried to get away from the killing and the suffering but when we got here we again met killing and suffering," she said.
The jury ruled out natural causes, accident and suicide and classified Saing's death as a homicide, meaning someone caused his death.
Coroner's counsel Karen Shea had urged the finding of homicide but said it was non-culpable, which means the officers met lethal force with lethal force and were, therefore, not blameworthy in the death.
Shea argued there were no deficiencies of policy, procedure or training that could be pinpointed as causing Saing's death.
She said the lives of James and Tocher, as well as two nearby civilians, were in danger and the officers acted according to their judgment and use-of-force training. Shea suggested no recommendations were warranted from the jury.
Marco Visentini, legal counsel for Hamilton police, and Gary Clewley, the lawyer for the two officers, agreed that no recommendation could prevent another death in circumstances such as this one.
The only lawyer to disagree was Graydon Sheppard, who represented Saing's widow, Kien Phann, and her children, a daughter who attends McMaster University and a son at Mohawk College. Sheppard suggested the officers acted too hastily and might have saved Saing's life had they put "time and distance" between him and themselves. He suggested the officers could have disengaged the armed man until backup units arrived.
bbrown@thespec.com
905-526-3494
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