A coroner’s inquest into the police shooting death of Matthew Dumas began this morning — on what would have been his 22nd birthday.
Dumas was 18 at the time of the afternoon shooting on Jan. 31 2005.
The hearing is expected to last two weeks and 25 witnesses will be called, said Crown counsel Robert Tapper.
This morning, Tapper said the inquest will show how the events unfolded that ended with Dumas being shot, but not why it happened.
Two witnesses testified this morning, the man who first called 911 to report a home invasion in Elmwood and the cabbie who drove the suspects from the home invasion to the North End.
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Tapper said those events were “the genesis” of the case of mistaken identity that led to Dumas’ shooting.
Ken Warren was alone at his girlfriend’s home in East Kildonan when he made the call to police reporting the home invasion. He noted they left in a cab, and he gave police the cab number and descriptions.
The cabbie, Julius Riffel, testified that he dropped them off in the North End near Dufferin Avenue and Robinson Street. Police stopped a group of people, including Dumas, near Dufferin Avenue and Andrews Street.
For an unknown reason Dumas bolted from police and was chased down a backlane. He scuffled briefly with an officer, broke free and ran between some houses to Dufferin Street where he was met by more officers.
Police tried again to subdue him, and told him repeatedly to stop and drop a weapon in one of his hands, said Tapper.
“Const. (Dennis) Gburek was pleading with Dumas to drop his weapon,” said Tapper. Dumas was shot twice when he came within several feet of the officer who was backed up against a snowbank, Tapper said.
Dumas’s “weapon”, it was later revealed, turned out to be a screwdriver.
It was later determined Dumas was not a suspect in the home invasion. His family has speculated he ran from police because he feared being re-arrested and placed again into the Winnipeg Remand Centre.
The lawyer for the Dumas family, which packed the court room and has standing at the inquest, said they will wait until the inquest is over to make a statement.
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