Jury at Joshua Megeney inquest asks for more SWAT team training, review of breach method

A jury serving at a coroner's inquest in Saskatoon has deemed the fatal 2016 shooting of Joshua Megeney by a member of the city's SWAT team a homicide.

The decision, delivered Friday, is not an assignment of criminal blame.

The six-person jury has also recommended several changes to how the Saskatoon Police Service's tactical support unit (TSU) operates, including the addition of formalized negotiation training for all officers in the approximately 20-person unit. 

The jury has also asked for a review of the TSU's practice of breaching areas where there is a barricaded person and a lack of information about that person.  

The incident 

Megeney's death in October 2016 was the subject of a coroner's inquest in Saskatoon this week. The process was meant to establish the facts of Megeney's death and prevent deaths like his in the future. 

Nine witnesses, including several members of the force's tactical support unit, laid out a generally consistent narrative for the six civilians sitting on the inquest jury.

Called to a house in the city's west end where there were signs of a break-in, officers came to find Megeney — whose identity was not known to them — barricaded behind a bedroom door, the inquest heard.

• Rifle was pointed toward police before officers fired, inquest hears

After trying to verbally coax a seemingly agitated Megeney out of the room, members of the tactical unit — in a much-debated move — rammed in the bedroom door in an attempt to establish a clearer line of communication with him. 

Megeney was then seen holding a rifle and pointing it at officers, prompting them to open fire. 

More training, resources recommended

The jury made a total of four recommendations, including:

• "If firearms are believed to be on premises during a police call, that a protocol be in place for the on-scene lead officers to be able to request and have immediate access, without reservation, to additional resources that he/she deems appropriate."  
• "We recommend TSU patrol shift officers have readily available in patrol cars a wide range of surveillance and communication tools. These will assist with intelligence gathering and between communication between officers and suspects." 

Tactical support unit officers testified that they didn't realize how much of a threat Megeney posed to them until he suddenly pointed a rifle at them after they breached the door of the room he had barricaded himself in.

The jury also recommended that:

• "That standard, formalized training and education with respect to negotiation/communication skills be implemented for all TSU members during initial training and continuing education. This would not be in lieu of Crisis Negotiation Team expertise…but considered a positive adjunct to both officers' experience and natural communities [skills]."

Some members of the unit testified they lacked such training at the time of the 2016 incident.

The jury's final recommendation concerned the most-discussed action taken by tactical support unit members that day: ramming the door when they knew there were firearms (from a closet safe) in the room with Megeney.

• "Policies and procedures around breach and retreat should be reviewed in regards to risking escalating a situation without adequate intelligence."

'A good start'

"I think the jury's recommendations are a good start," said Scott Spencer, the lawyer for the Megeney family.

"For Josh's dad, it's important … that the Saskatoon Police Service learns from Josh's death," he said. "He hopes sincerely that something positive is learned learned through this week." 

Robin Ritter, the coroner's counsel, called the jury's recommendations "eminently sensible."

"You have demonstrated amazing patience, concentration, focus and I have to say exceptional intelligence to this process," said presiding coroner Alma Wiebe. "That is a significant service."

Spencer said the family also appreciated the jury's work this week. 

"The family will be forever grateful for the efforts of those six individuals that took their week to try to to help them through this tough time," he said. 

The jury's other task was to classify exactly how Megeney came to be fatally wounded by an immediately life-ending gunshot wound to the forehead.  

They had five choices: natural causes, accident, homicide, suicide or undetermined.

Some of the categories bear some explaining.

"In a coroner's jury context, 'homicide' is a neutral term," a previous presiding coroner, Robert Kennedy, explained to the jury sitting on the Brydon Whitstone inquest last December. Whitstone was fatally shot by an RCMP officer in 2017.

A homicide decision in a coroner's inquest does not come with the implication of criminal responsibility, Kennedy added.

"It is not like murder. Murder under the Criminal Code is culpable homicide. It's an intentional causing of death."

Megeney didn't shoot himself

The bullet fragments found in Megeney's head did not come from the rifle found on his body, according to testimony given Friday by Sgt. Leslie Van Beuken, a member of the Saskatoon police forensic identification unit. 

Nor could they be matched to the rifles fired by constables Jesse Jackson and Blake Atkinson — though lead investigator Kyla Hicks told the inquest it's believed Jackson struck Megeney.

The spectre of "suicide by cop" — intentionally provoking police to fire — loomed over the inquest, after first being raised by Spencer.

Spencer asked Const. Jackson about it on Day 2 of the proceedings, when referring to Jackson's decision to line up a shot after Megeney was seen with a weapon:

SPENCER: If you have a situation where you believe somebody is suicidal by their own hand, or potentially suicidal or inclined to threaten the police to force the situation, is your training to pressure that person? Or to step back and give them some room?

JACKSON: There isn't exactly direct training on [that]. If somebody is of that concept, suicidal, it's a dangerous situation. There's no direct training to say we do certain things if we're met with it.

SPENCER: But if your belief is that you had potential for suicide by cop, your response to that was to step up to that to get a shot?

JACKSON: Within seconds — this happened very, very quickly — we're presented with a threat. He pointed a gun at us, ducked his head to the side. I had that opportunity to step up and assist.

Had he not stepped up, Jackson added, the lives of Const. Atkinson and Const. Joel Lalonde would have been in danger.

'Made me think he wanted to get in a shootout'

Jackson testified that after the door was rammed and officers could make Megeney's voice out more clearly, Megeney said "I want to make one last call to my mother."

"The fact that he said the word 'last' made me think he wanted to get in a shootout with police," Jackson said.

Lalonde remembered Megeney saying "I want to phone my mom before I give up."

"I really, really believed he was going to come down the stairs and there was going to be a gunfight," Lalonde told the jury.

The presiding coroner for the Megeney inquest, Alma Wiebe, advised the jury to  carefully consider and sift through the evidence to consider whether the category of "suicide" is appropriate in this case.

Wiebe said there's usually a suicide note, verbal or non-verbal signs of intended suicide or expressions of farewell or a desire to die. 

"Use your common sense on this," she said. 

The 'undetermined' option

Jurors also had the option of classifying Megeney's means of death as "undetermined."

Kennedy, when explaining the term "undetermined" to the Whitstone inquest jury, suggested jurors pick that option "if there is no evidence reasonably supporting a finding of any other classification."

"Or if there is… a significant contest between [other] classifications," he added.

The inquest saw many extended interactions between the jury and witnesses.

• 'Engaged' jury at Joshua Megeney inquest asks at length about Saskatoon SWAT team practices
• SWAT members who dealt with Joshua Megeney had no formal crisis negotiation training, death inquest hears

Under the direct questioning of the female jury foreperson, members of the unit said they would be open to changes, including a fully-dedicated tactical support unit. Members currently pull double duty as patrol officers or other roles.

Some changes have already happened, the inquest heard.

The unit now has an in-house psychologist, and some members have since received training in crisis negotiation. 

Atkinson said his encounter with Megeney in 2016 — which first appeared like a routine break-and-enter call only to suddenly morph unto a dangerous situation involving an unexpectedly armed man — has changed his thinking. 

• 'It was my decision': SWAT team leader defends call to ram bedroom door in fatal 2016 standoff

"Speaking personally, my perception of something like this, what is simply a break-and-enter, has forever changed because of what happened in this particular case."