Story behind police shooting

It began when officer's gun fired while smashing car window: Sources

By Philip Mascoll Toronto Star Staff Reporter

Eyewitness accounts suggest Hugh Dawson died amid police gunfire on
Easter Sunday after a chain of events that began when an officer used
a gun to break a car window, discharging the firearm, sources say.

[photo]
HUGH DAWSON One of the seven Metro police officers surrounding
Dawson's car during a drug bust smashed one of the black Honda
Accord's tinted windows with his service weapon and the gun
discharged into the car, the sources said.

The bullet smashed a window on the other side of the car where
another officer, who was holding a shotgun, was hit with the glass or
bullet fragments.

That officer reeled backwards, possibly thinking he had been shot, the
sources said.

``Everyone believed he was hit, he believed he was hit,'' a police
source said.

And then a third officer opened fire at Dawson, who was sitting at the
wheel alone in his car.

The team of officers was from the East Field Command Drug Squad.

According to the sources, the events began somewhat earlier than the
8:45 p.m. shooting when the team used marked money to buy cocaine from
Dawson.

Later, on Kennedy Rd. just south of Danforth Rd., the team of
officers, in several vehicles, moved in on Dawson's car.

Detectives Peter Gibson and Keith Rogers were supervising the team,
made up of Detective Constables Rick Shank, Rajeev Sukurmaran, Phil
Chan, Albert Flis and Lorelei McIvor.

The officers used their vehicles to box in Dawson's vehicle,
effectively trapping the Honda against the sidewalk.

The officers rushed the car with their firearms at the ready, sources
said. They carried the standard Metro police issue Glock .40calibre
pistols. One carried a shotgun.

One officer immediately smashed in the back window with a nightstick,
while other officers went to the front windows of the car. Events
escalated to their fatal conclusion when one of the side windows was
smashed with a gun.

``It is impossible to see into a car at night through those tinted
windows and someone could be pointing a gun at you,'' said a police
source.

Metro police said Shank and Sukurmaran fired the shots that killed
Dawson. However, the Special Investigations Unit, which probes all
incidents of injury or death involving police, has refused to comment.

This version of events seems to contradict the one given to reporters
by police Chief David Boothby, who was on the scene shortly after the
shooting.

``A violent struggle ensued when the suspect attempted to seize an
officer's firearm,'' Boothby told reporters at the time.

``This led to two officers discharging their firearms. The suspect,
the sole occupant of his vehicle, was mortally wounded.''

Witnesses said there was confusion immediately after the shooting.
Some officers raced back to their vehicles and some backed them up or
drove off.

Ambulances arrived at the scene and, according to first reports,
paramedics worked on Dawson for 20 minutes. Instructions were given
over the police radio to block off streets for an emergency run to
Sunnybrook Health Science Centre.

This was cancelled when Dawson died at the scene.

However, according to witnesses, his body was moved well before SIU
investigators arrived.

The ``subject officers,'' those who fired the shots, and the ``witness
officers'' were also gone.

Witnesses at the scene said they heard three shots and saw a group of
men surrounding a black car, apparently stopped on Kennedy Rd. by
unmarked police vehicles.

Zafar Qaryzada, 18, told The Star's Phinjo Gombu he was getting ready
to bake some muffins at Break Time Donuts, about 200 metres north of
the industrialcommercial area where Dawson was shot, when a friend
yelled something was happening.

A black car, which was pointed north on Kennedy Rd., had been boxed in
by a van and other unmarked police cars.

Qaryzada, who called 911, said he had a good view of what was
happening thanks to a bright street light and all the car headlights.

Several people surrounded the black car, most of them on the passenger
side, he said.

One smashed the car's rear window with something ``long'' while
another pointed ``a long gun, probably a shotgun or a rifle,'' at the
passenger window, Qaryzada said.

While Qaryzada said he couldn't hear any shots because of loud music
in the doughnut shop, he said he saw the gun recoil upwards and a man
stagger backward and fall to the ground.

Yesterday, SIU director AndrE9 Marin again released few details of the
autopsy performed Wednesday on Dawson's body.

``The post mortem lasted four hours and the cause of death was
determined to be multiple gunshot wounds,'' the director said.

Marin had instructed the witness officers to give their statements by
5 p.m. yesterday, but the deadline came and passed without any of them
speaking to the SIU.

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One man pointed 'a long gun, probably a shotgun or a rifle,' at the
passenger window
_________________________________________________________________

J.J. Burke, the lawyer representing the five, earlier this week
thumbed his nose at the deadline, saying the officers would do so in
``due course.''

The five witness officers are required to ``cooperate fully'' with
the SIU, but Shank and Sukurmaran won't have to answer questions
unless they want to.

Marin said earlier this week that an officer who actually does the
shooting has a right to remain silent under the Charter of Rights.

The SIU has refused to comment on the number of shots fired by the
officers or on the progress of tests on the vehicle, which is now at
the forensic sciences centre to be examined.

Spokesperson Barbara Theobalds also refused to comment on whether
marked money the police used to buy cocaine from Dawson had been
removed from the car.

Meanwhile, Police Association vicepresident Jack Richie lambasted the
SIU for ``wasting time being heavyhanded about officers not
cooperating,'' when there were other important aspects of the
investigation to be done.

He said he knew Dawson's vehicle had not yet been examined by forensic
experts.

``Only the marked money used to make the drug buy has been taken
out,'' he said. ``Otherwise, it was not touched.''

``Is there a firearm? It would be interesting to know that, but the
car is still sitting there.''