ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- The retired judge who independently observed the RCMP probe into the police shooting of Don Dunphy in Newfoundland says his role was never clear to him.
David Riche told a public inquiry into the 2015 death he believed his job was to get at the truth while ensuring an impartial investigation.
But he says RCMP investigators didn't like him raising too many questions.
Riche says he asked early on why Const. Joe Smyth of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary did not take a lie detector test about what happened on Easter Sunday 2015 in RCMP jurisdiction.
Smyth says he shot Dunphy, 58, once in the side and twice in the head in self defence after he aimed a rifle at him.
Riche says the Mounties told him a lie detector test wasn't possible but didn't say why.
He also says he believes Smyth should never have gone to Dunphy's home in Mitchell's Brook to check out social media comments.
Riche says he reached that conclusion after investigators told him it would have been "false arrest" without legal grounds if Smyth had taken Dunphy into custody.
Smyth had gone alone to Dunphy's house after staff in then-premier Paul Davis's office flagged a single post "of concern" on Twitter.
