The coroner’s inquest into the death of a man shot by police at an East Vancouver Canadian Tire is now underway.
In November 2016, 38-year-old Daniel Peter Rintoul was shot nine times after stabbing a Vancouver police officer in the Canadian Tire parking lot off Grandview Highway.
The first person to testify Monday was Rintoul’s sister, Sheri Cardall.
She told Global News her brother was bullied and got into fights as a child but grew up to be a loving and compassionate person, despite having mental health struggles.
By the time he was three years old, Cardall said her brother had been diagnosed as hyperactive. “I didn’t think there was anything actually wrong with him, growing up, just that he was a little weird, a little different,” she said.
She said he would go for days without saying anything and just focus on his toys or another task.
Cardall said when her brother was around nine or 10, that’s when they started to see a change in him. “He became a very angry person,” she said.
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As he grew older, Rintoul struggled with mental health issues, Cardall added, eventually leading to his death in 2016.
The purpose of the inquest now is to hear recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) cleared Vancouver police of any wrongdoing in Rintoul’s death in February 2019.
The IIO’s report found police were justified in opening fire after Rintoul allegedly stabbed a Canadian Tire store clerk and began trying to steal guns.
Ryan Bostwick told the inquest he was working at that gun counter that day.
He was behind the desk when Rintoul approached, and demanded he and another clerk open the case and when Rintoul was asked: “which case” he deployed bear spray in their faces.
“I got hit in the face, I was able to cover my face up, hide it. At which point he came around the desk, smashed the glass with something heavy and glass came down on me,” Bostwick said.
He then started to run, yelling at customers to get out of the way and calling 911. He said he also saw blood on the ground from when Rintoul allegedly stabbed a store clerk.
“I’m not particularly enjoying having to re-live it all but I’m just glad to get out with as little damage as I got,” Bostwick said.
Cardall said she wants people to know that her brother was a loving person who struggled in his life.
“It has always surprised me and bothered me that he decided to go out in the violent manner that he did,” she said.
“That he thought the only way he could end his pain was by causing someone else pain. That wasn’t him. Being in pain was one thing he never wanted someone else to experience. He would go out of his way to make sure someone wasn’t suffering. And for him to go out the way he did, it was so unlike him. I can’t wrap my mind around it.”
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