The judge who presided over a long-delayed joint inquest into the deaths of two men shot in separate incidents by Winnipeg police has suggested families receive funding for lawyers to represent them at the difficult hearings.
Evan Caron, 33, and Adrian Lacquette, 23, were shot and killed by Winnipeg Police Service officers as they wielded weapons in unconnected circumstances a week-and-a-half apart in September 2017.
Provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs presided over the January inquest, legislatively required after fatal incidents involving police.
Daniel Crump / Free Press Files
Vivian Caron visits the grave of her son, Evan Caron, in the Gypsumville cemetery in 2023.
His report was released to the public Thursday.
Heinrichs made no formal recommendations for policy or legislative changes meant to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future — one of the main aims of inquests — as both shootings were deemed justified in the circumstances.
He did, however, recommend that families of the deceased have the cost of legal representation during inquiries covered.
“Two Indigenous males were killed by WPS officers. These are not the only times this has happened and in many of those deaths, like these two, family members have not been able to obtain legal representation for the inquest,” he wrote in the report dated July 26.
The families had sought legal counsel but were unable to secure funding, Heinrichs noted. Many families, he wrote, can’t afford to pay for lawyers and provincial judges have no authority to order any agency to cover the cost.
The province’s chief medical examiner called the inquest in April 2018. Joint inquests can be held when the facts or circumstances are “sufficiently similar,” Heinrichs noted, recommending future joint inquests take place only if the deaths occurred in the same incident.
The personal lives and circumstances of the deaths were not identical and should be given their own due, in part to ensure the dignity of families, he said, quoting Caron’s mother.
The inquest was delayed multiple times due, in part, to COVID-19 pandemic related backlogs, which frustrated Caron’s already-struggling mother, who felt the courts did not communicate with her about the matter, she told the Free Press previously.
Supplied
Evan Caron was shot and killed by police in Winnipeg in 2017.
Vivian Caron had standing in the inquest and asked questions of those testifying.
In Lacquette’s case, police officers were called over reports of a fight involving a man with a gun at a home on Pritchard Avenue late on Sept. 12, 2017.
He had been drinking and doing cocaine and struck his sister. Lacquette then left the house, forced a woman from her vehicle and robbed a beer vendor before police eventually caught up with him and the stolen SUV on Alfred Avenue shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 13.
Lacquette, holding a sawed-off firearm that looked like an antique pistol to his head with a crazed look on his face, told police to shoot him and threatened to shoot a police dog if it got near him, as he was being ordered to drop the weapon.
He then raised the gun in the direction of police, leading two officers, Det. Sgt. Jonathan Young and Const. Jeffrey Conrad, to open fire, the inquest heard. The officers performed first aid, but Lacquette was pronounced dead at Health Sciences Centre not long after.
Heinrichs lamented that the inquest learned little of who Lacquette was prior to his death. He noted that his mother, Joanne Malcolm, had participated in meetings leading up to the inquest but did not attend.
“Sadly, her lack of involvement in the end may have been as a result of the lengthy delays in this inquest or because of not being able to secure legal counsel to represent the family,” he wrote.
In Evan Caron’s case, Vivian Caron called police to report that her son had been using methamphetamine and had been pacing while carrying knives in a paranoid and agitated state during the afternoon of Sept. 23, 2017. Other 911 calls reported he had been attacking his brother.
Sgt. Tyler Everett Loewen kicked down the door of Vivian Caron’s home on Madrigal Close in the Maples, hearing yelling from inside; officers responded to what they believed was a homicide in progress.
Adrian Lacquette.
Evan Caron thrust the blade of a knife at Loewen, whose momentum took him into the house’s foyer. The officer twistedaway and shot him six times; he was stabbed in the shoulder.
Caron was pronounced dead at 4:43 p.m.
Vivian Caron described Evan, her first-born son, as a “brilliant person” and a good artist and athlete, who is greatly missed.
She said he became addicted to meth after being displaced by the 2011 flood of the Fairford River, which forced the evacuation of their First Nation home.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.