Inquest into police involved shooting death of Christopher Ray begins

An inquest began Monday morning in Burnaby for a man fatally shot by Vancouver police almost two years ago.

In October of 2012, 52-year-old Christopher Ray was involved in a confrontation with police.

It began with a smashed window at a building near the McDonald’s on Hastings west of Boundary.

The first officer on the scene ordered Ray to stop where he was and to drop a knife in his hand, but he did not.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Independent Investigations Office.

On the stand on Monday the officer talked about how everything escalated really quickly that night and when Ray was about 25 to 30 feet away, the officer drew his firearm and kept telling him to stay back. Ray did not and when he kept advancing the officer fired when Ray was about six feet away.

Ray’s doctor, also at the inquest on Monday, had seen Ray that morning and said he was on cocaine and crystal meth and had not slept in days. She said he was not showing signs of suicide however.

The inquest will examine whether there would have been any other ways to defuse the situation, but the jury may not, by law, make any findings of legal responsibility. Instead, it will make recommendations to help prevent deaths under similar circumstances in the future.