Police officer who shot and killed Chantel Moore testifies at inquest | The Canadian News

The officer who shot Chantel Moore on June 4, 2020, testified Tuesday on the second day of the inquest into her death that he, like her family, is at a loss to understand how the situation outside her Edmundston, N.B., apartment escalated so quickly.

Moore, of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in British Columbia, was 26 when she was fatally shot that morning by an Edmundston police officer who’d been dispatched to check on her well-being.

Moore’s family members were distraught during the testimony, for the first time hearing what took place that night from their daughter’s killer. 

The family received support from members of the Indigenous community in attendance at the inquest, including drumming and smudging.

Well known Wolastoqi singer Jeremy Dutcher made an appearance in the morning. He sang as family members proceeded through security into the conference room

He fired four times in quick succession

Here is how Const. Jeremy Son’s testimony unfolded, from the moment he arrived at her door on that June night until after he shot her and it was clear she had no pulse.

Son said it was only a few seconds between the time Moore was awakened by his knocking on the window of her Canada Road apartment and got up “calmly” from her couch, and the moment he fired his service sidearm at her.

WATCH | Chantel Moore family’s emotional arrival at second day of inquest into her death

Son testified he fired four times in quick succession from about two metres away after she came out of the door and toward him with a knife in her raised hand. 

He’d been knocking on her window for a few minutes, he said, and could see her sleeping on the couch. Her phone was in front of her and it was lighting up as if from notifications.

Even once she woke up, she seemed to be searching for the source of the sound, so he kept knocking.

When it seemed she’d seen him, Son said, he pointed his flashlight at his uniform to show he was a police officer and he pointed to the door.

She looked at the door and got up, said Son, moving toward the kitchen with a blanket around her.

He took a few steps toward the door.

Everything seemed normal, said the constable, until he saw through the door that she picked up something metallic from the kitchen counter. Then she came quickly to the door, he said, with an angry look on her face.

“I couldn’t understand what was going on, because it seemed like the reaction had changed,” told the inquest in Fredericton.

Seeing that she had picked up a possible weapon he took out his weapon as well, he said. 

She opened the door and had her arm up with the knife in her hand and was moving toward him, Son said.

He said he told her to drop the knife a couple of times.

There were boxes on the balcony and he was tripping as he backed up. Son said he got to the railing of the balcony pretty quickly.

He said he didn’t have time to discharge his weapon at her until she stopped.

She fell to the ground.

“I didn’t know how it got to that point,” said Son. “There was no reason this should have happened. I couldn’t understand how it changed so drastically. It happened so quickly. There was no more reaction time.”

Son said according to his training, as soon as there is a risk of serious injury or death, it’s the service weapon that should be used. 

“We need to stop the threat as quickly as possible to avoid those consequences,” he said.

When Moore fell, Son said, he put away his weapon. He could hear Moore’s blood bubbling out and could see it pooling quickly on the balcony floors. 

Sgt. Marc Bouchard, who had arrived on the scene about 30 seconds earlier according to his own testimony, advised the police station what had happened, said Son.

Bouchard said he also called for an ambulance.

They quickly turned her body over, said Son, and applied pressure to try to stop the bleeding. Moore’s eyes were open and looking around everywhere, he said. He tried to talk to her and take her pulse.

Time went on, said Son, and he lost track of it, but at some point he could see that her eyes had become fixed. He asked Bouchard to check for a pulse and Bouchard said he found none.

Son said Bouchard took his weapon and told him to go down the stairs. He said they went to the station in his patrol car, and he turned in the rest of his equipment.

Son didn’t have a Taser

Son confirmed that pictures shown on a projection screen were of the uniform and equipment he had on that morning. The word police was clearly marked on his chest in big white letters and on his ball cap. Besides his service Glock 40, he also had pepper spray, a baton and handcuffs.

Son said he was trained to use a Taser and to instruct others in its use. But he didn’t have one that night because there was only one functional Taser and a fellow officer had it. Plus, that Taser didn’t fit him properly. It was too tight on him.

Son’s testimony was expected to continue in the afternoon.