Mental health issues played role in 2 of 3 people killed in N.L. by police since 2000

This story is part ofDeadly Force, a CBC News investigation into police-involved fatalities in Canada.

More than 460 people have died in encounters with police across Canada since the year 2000, and a substantial majority suffered from mental health problems or symptoms of drug abuse, aCBCNews investigation has found including two people in this province.

No government agency or police force maintains national statistics on police-involved fatalities, but a comprehensive database assembled by CBC shows that 70 per centof the people who died struggled with mental health issuesor substance abuse or both.

A further breakdown shows 42 per centof those who died were mentally ill or distressed, while 45 per centwere under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, there have been three fatal police shootings since 2000. Two of those involved a person with mental illness.

But now, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says it has a new unit that is meant to change the way officers respond to people in mental health crisis.

Norman Reid, 43 Aug. 26, 2000

43-year-old Norman Reid was shot and killed by RCMP officers from the Bonavista detachment after they responded to a complaint that Reid had threatened the lives of children in Little Catalina, Trinity Bay.

Reid suffered from schizophrenia and was shot after he lunged at one of the officers with an axe held over his head.

He was shot five times.

Reid knew he suffered from schizophrenia, but didn't like the effects of his medication, which he wouldn't take unless by court order, Reid's nurse told a provincial court inquiry.

Darryl Power, 23 Oct. 16, 2000

Seven weeks after Norman Reid was shot and killed, a devastatingly familiar scenario played out on the west coast of the province.

Darryl Power, 23, was in mental distresswhen members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary arrived at his mother's apartment in Corner Brook.

They would later shoot him dead.

Power, who suffered from depression and panic attacks, was reportedly shot three times once in the chest and twice in the head.

Shots were fired after he ran outside the door with a knife in his hand.

The officers involved in the shooting were cleared by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). But the justice minister at the time, Kelvin Parsons (father of current justice minister Andrew Parsons), ordered a judicial inquiry into how the shooting happened and whether changes should be made to policy in relation to dealing with people with mental illness.

The subsequent inquiry found that the death was "suicide by cop."

Don Dunphy, 58 April 5, 2015

An injured worker frustrated by government, Don Dunphy was shot after a member of the premier's police detail visited his home to investigate a series of tweets.

A judicial inquiry found that Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer Const. Joe Smyth used "appropriate force" when he fired at Dunphy four times inside his home in Mitchell's Brook, a small community in St. Mary's Bay, about 40 minutes outside of St. John's.

• Joe Smyth used 'appropriate force in self-defence,' says report into Dunphy shooting

The plainclothes officer travelled to Dunphy's home that day to speak Dunphy about tweets he had posted that used strong language criticising then-premier Paul Davis and other MHAs.

He said he shot Dunphy after the man pointed a rifle at him.

While the data collected by CBC News only encompasses cases after 2000, there is one other police shooting in this province from the mid-1990s.

Nicholas Benteau, 34 March 2, 1996

Nicholas Benteau, 34, was described as drunk when he fired a shot into the air in front of a crowd that had gathered outside his father's home in Point May, on the tip of Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula.

Two officers fired three shots into Benteau.

A subsequent judicial inquiry heard testimony from the RCMP's training centre that officers are not trained to maim, but to aim at the centre of the body mass.

Government inquiries

A report by Judge Donald Luther into the 2000 shooting deaths of Reid and Powerrecommended changes to the Mental Health Act, the establishment of a mental-health division of the provincial court, as well as a slew of mental health services and training.

The province says the RNC implemented all recommendations laid out in the report, and the justice department did establish a mental-health court.

A person in crisis is looking for help. They're not a criminal.- RNC Chief Joe Boland

"This therapeutic court is designed to provide medical and community support to accused persons and sits regularly," a justice department spokesperson said in an email.

The biggest recommendations stemming from Leo Barry's inquiry report into the death of Don Dunphy was the establishment of an independent police oversight committee.

Promises from the current Liberal government include $250,000 set aside in this year's budget for a Serious Incident Response Team. A further $500,000 has been pledged in future years.

As of now, the justice department relies on outside police forces or serious incident response teams from other provinces to carry out investigations.

How police respond to people in crisis

Just this week, the RNCstarted a mobile crisis unit that has been four years in the making.

RNC Chief Joe Boland, who is a 35-year veteran of the force,helped bring the unit to fruition after being frustrated by what he was seeing when officers respond to calls pertaining to mental health.

"A person in crisis is looking for help. They're not a criminal," he said in an interview with CBC News.

"I think right from the minute a police car shows up in your neighbourhood, I think it goes down the road of justice. That's where we want it to change."

Instead of arriving in a squad car in uniform, plain-clothed officers will now respond with a nurse or social worker, who will triage and treat the person in crisis.

"When an unmarked van goes down the street, it brings no attention to the home, it brings no attention to the family or to the person in crisis," he said.

Bolandsaid the healthcare professionals aren't trained by the RNC, or vice versa. But in acting as a team, officers arelearning more about mental illness.