The New Brunswick government says the circumstances of the 2015 police shooting death of a New Brunswick businessman outside a train station will get a public airing in court.
The Attorney General’s office says it has ordered chief coroner Gregory Forestell to hold an inquest into the death of Michel Vienneau, a 51-year-old Tracadie, N.B., store owner who was shot in his vehicle in Bathurst.
READ: N.B. prosecutors seeking to revive case against officers who shot Michel Vienneau
On Monday, the provincial prosecution service had announced it would not further appeal a February ruling dismissing criminal charges against two police officers in the death.
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Const. Patrick Bulger and Const. Mathieu Boudreau had been charged with manslaughter with a weapon, assault with a weapon and unlawfully pointing a firearm in Vienneau’s Jan. 12, 2015, death.
Judge Anne Dugas-Horsman ruled that the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence to warrant a trial, and her decision was upheld last month by Court of Queens Bench Judge Tracey DeWare.
The province says an inquest is an opportunity for public presentation of “all evidence” in a formal court proceeding, and to make recommendations for preventing future deaths.
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