A friend of a man who was shot dead by Hamilton police over the weekend says his family is seeking answers after the province’s police watchdog indicated a gun battle had taken place between officers and the victim.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said that officers were dispatched to an apartment building on Main Street West in Hamilton on Saturday night at around 5 p.m., after a resident said they had been threatened by a man.
When officers reached the building, the SIU said they became involved with a suspect before two officers fired their guns at the man, and he was struck by a bullet.
He was then transported to hospital, where he died shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday morning.
Initially, on Saturday, the SIU reported that officers and the man had been involved in a gunfight and that an officer had been struck by a bullet as well, but they later clarified that the man had not shot a gun.
The police watchdog says that an officer was hurt and needed to be treated in hospital for minor injuries before being released.
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Later on Monday, a spokesperson for the SIU told Global News said it had “collected a replica firearm from the scene.”
The spokesperson also said that the police watchdog had collected weapons from two officers as well.
The SIU says that a post-mortem is scheduled for Monday morning in Toronto.
Josephine Murphy, the founder of non-profit Shelter Them Rwanda, told Global News the victim is Erixon Kabera. She said she has known him for two decades since she first arrived from Rwanda. Kabera came as a refugee before becoming a Canadian citizen.
In a post on X, Murphy shared a statement from Kabera’s family and friends, which took issue with the narrative of how the shooting unfolded.
“Police initially described the situation as ‘an exchange of gunfire,’ insinuating that Erixon himself had a firearm and engaged the officers,” the statement read in part.
“We, his family and close friends, found this explanation deeply troubling. Erixon was not known to possess a gun, nor did he have a history of condoning or engaging in any type of violence.”
It went on to say: “We find that reversal of crucial facts, a full day after telling the entire world otherwise and painting an image of violence for our very own, to be deeply outrageous and unnerving.”
Murphy, who serves as an advisor to the Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre, alongside Kabera, said that they were both survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. She said that his family was in shock over the incident.
“They don’t know how to make sense out of it,” she said.
RCHC executive director Kizito Musabimana said that Kabera’s estranged wife told him that he had been shot four times by police.
He credited Kabera as being a man who stepped in to help however he could within the Rwandan Canadian community.
The two officers who fired their weapons are now under investigation; two other officers have been identified as witnesses, the SIU said.
The SIU is an independent agency that investigates incidents involving police that have resulted in death, serious injury or alleged sexual assault.
*With files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald
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