Inquest into shooting death of Elmvale's Douglas Minty continues

CTV Barrie: Inquest continues An inquest into the death of an Elmvale man continued today. Mike Walker has the latest on today’s testimony.

The training police receive to deal with volatile situations was under the microscope today in Midhurst.

A coroner's inquest is looking into the death of Elmvale man Douglas Minty. He was shot and killed by police outside his home in 2009.

For five years now Minty's family has been waiting for answers. The 59-year-old developmentally-delayed man was shot and killed by an OPP officer in June 2009.

Lawyer Julian Roy represents the Minty family.

Roy says what’s of “utmost importance to the family is to understand the truth about what happened  and to make sure this doesn't happen to any other family again.”

During today's testimony, court heard how it is OPP policy to have two officers respond to a call involving someone with a mental health problem but on that day Const. Jeff Seguin responded and acted alone. His lawyer Andrew McKay said Seguin was under the impression it was an assault call and wasn't aware of Minty's condition.

Police say Minty approached the officer with a knife and that's when Seguin shot minty five times. The Special Investigations Unit determined Seguin was justified in using his gun.

Sgt. Nathalie Rivard who is a program co-ordinator for the OPP police academy told the court Seguin successfully completed his initial training in 2006 and re-qualification training every year after that.

Court also heard how OPP officers are trained to respond to a wide range of calls that involve someone with a mental illness but there isn't specific scenario training for a person who is developmentally delayed like Minty.

“It's one thing to have a policy but for the policy to have an impact on behaviour and practise there has to be training,” Roy says, “otherwise the policy is not worth the paper it’s written on.”

The inquest will continue tomorrow and both the dispatcher and Minty's mother are expected to testify.