'Suicide by cop' death inquiry needed: family

The family of a man who was killed by an RCMP officer in what was described as "suicide by cop" is renewing their call for a public inquiry into the death of Delbert Kenneth Pelletier.

Pelletier, 44,died Nov. 13, 2006, just outside his home on the Muskowekwan First Nation about 150 kilometres northeast of Regina.

A coroner's inquest in 2009 found Pelletier was upset and had been fighting with his wife. She left the home and called police. A six-hour standoff ensued and ended when Pelletier emerged from the house with a firearm and shot an unoccupied house. He also shot at what was later learned to be an armouredpolice cruiser.

Two nearby police snipers responded by shooting Pelletier. He died from a shot that hit his heart.

Information from the coroner's inquest left the man's family with more questions.

"The inquest suggested that every judgment the RCMP made was either wrong [or] not supported by the facts," Melanie Fisher, the dead man's sister-in-law, said in a family statement released Thursday through the advocacy group SCAR, the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism.

"What seems clear was that the RCMP, fearing 'suicide by cops,' made tactical and strategic decisions which improved the odds of such an outcome," Fisher said.

The family said there were a number of options available to police that could have led to a peaceful resolution.

One was to simply leave Pelletier to fall asleep. Pelletier had repeatedly told the RCMP crisis negotiator on the phone that he was tired.

"I believe the safest thing that the RCMP could have done was to leave Kenny alone and allowed him to get some sleep so that he could think better," Fisher said. "At the inquest, the RCMP never did explain why other [such] options weren't utilized."

The coroner's inquest did recommend RCMP conduct more training, especially in the area of cross-cultural awareness.

Fisher said the family wants a broader public inquiry to examine the full circumstances of Pelletier's death and how police conduct themselves in crisis situations.

"At the [coroner's] inquest, the RCMP aggressively defended their judgment call, always sheltering under protocol," Fisher said. She said the family is concerned "that protocol might have been an error."

Fisher and her husband Calvin Pelletier, the dead man's brother, raised about $50,000 to have a lawyer represent them at the coroner's inquest.

They have said from the outset that their goal is to prevent similar deaths in the future.

However they believe police tactics remain the same.

"To date, there has been no change and we need change, otherwise our brother died in vain," the statement concluded.