At the Sept. 8 opening of the inquest into the death of a 57-year-old Parry Sound man who was tasered by police in 2018, the court heard a post-mortem examination found the man had died of complications of rhabdomyolysis.
It’s what inquest counsel Peter Napier described as “a condition in which damaged skeletal muscle breaks down rapidly due to cocaine toxicity.” Rhabdomyolysis refers to the dissolution of skeletal muscle and is characterized by leakage of muscle cell contents, myoglobin, sarcoplasmic proteins, and electrolytes into the extracellular fluid and circulation.
David Gourley died on July 17, 2018, at Health Sciences North just a few days after the July 12 interaction with the officers.
An inquest is a public hearing conducted by a coroner, lawyer, or retired judge before a jury of five community members. Inquests are held to inform the public about the circumstances of a death, and to make recommendations on preventative measures in future.
As stated by presiding officer Dr. James Kovacs, a retired physician who is overseeing the proceedings, “We do not find full blame or negligence, it’s simply that we are triers of facts.”
This inquest seeks to analyze police response to Gourley’s death.
Kovacs told the five jurors, who were unseen in the virtual hearing, that there are five questions they must answer, some "fairly straightforward.”
“Who the deceased was, when did they die, where did they die, and what was the medical cause of death,” said Kovacs. “You will hear evidence from the forensic pathologist about the autopsy examination to help us understand the cause of death.”
Their final question is a little more difficult: what was the manner of death?
Kovacs’ told the jurors there were five possible classifications: natural disease, accidental death, suicide, homicide, and one other.
“The fifth category is undetermined,” he said. “If you can't decide among the first four categories on a balance of probabilities, then it's undetermined.”
Unlike criminal court, jurors are permitted to ask questions of witnesses and at the end of the proceedings they will be asked to make recommendations to prevent the issue from happening in a similar way, however, if the jurors had no recommendations, none were required.
In his opening address, Napier told the jurors the scope of the inquest — the police interaction and not the hospital care — as well as “the particular facts and circumstances of this death.”
He said “there is nothing particularly contentious about what happened back on July 12, 2018 at the intersection of Bose and Beaver street in Parry Sound,” and so, he provided jurors with an agreed upon set of facts, called a narrative.
It was July 12, 2018 “at approximately 19:49 hours,” the West Parry Sound detachment of the OPP received a report from a member of the public regarding an older male (later identified as Gourley) who was observed running in and out of traffic on Bow Street in Parry Sound, Napier told the inquest.
He said the caller described Gourley as incoherent. “He didn't seem to be responding to individuals who were attempting to assist him, and as a result, a number of officers from the Parry Sound OPP detachment were dispatched.”
The officers arrived and attempted to gain physical control of Gourley, as he was in the roadway.
West Parry Sound OPP Const. Adam Hemming (now Det.-Const) testified that when he got a call about an “incoherent, middle-aged man going in and out of traffic” he immediately knew who the man was.
“I recognized Mr. Gourley. I knew him. I asked him what was going on, if he had consumed any substances,” Hemming testified. “I had had previous interactions with Mr. Gourley centred around his recreational use of cocaine. I didn’t receive any coherent responses to my inquiry.”
Hemming testified there were reports that Gourley was attempting to pull people out of their vehicles at the busy Parry Sound intersection and had also shaken a dog who was sitting on the pavement next to a wheel of a Land Rover that had stopped.
“He was in some sort of psychosis,” said Hemming. “He was shaking his head rigorously back and forth. He had a 1,000-yard stare … . He was unresponsive to my inquiries.”
Hemming testified Gourley said, “No. No. They’re going to get me. Don’t let them shoot me. Bye, bye David Gourley.” and that the man “looked to be in some sort of active psychosis,” said Hemming. “It was more of a mental health crisis or addiction crisis as opposed to any criminal activity.”
Kieran Babbage, a paramedic with only two months of experience at the time, testified that he responded to “a priority dispatch” at Bowes and Beaver Street in Parry Sound. Babbage said he arrived within minutes and found Gourley restrained by handcuffs and “initially unresponsive.” Despite later efforts to assess the patient's vitals and condition, Babbage testified that the patient's restlessness and lack of co-operation and decided to transport the patient to the hospital for further care, noting the Gourley’s “elevated breathing and agitation.”
Gourley was admitted to the West Perry Sound hospital’s intensive care unit due to a suspected drug overdose.
Napier said in his opening statement that hospital staff noted that it was difficult to ascertain a history from Gourley due to “decreased level of consciousness and unresponsiveness to verbal commands.” A blood sample was taken on his admission to hospital and tested positive for cocaine and benzodiazepines; Gourley was then transferred to the emergency room for monitoring.
“Sadly, by the following day, Mr. Gourley's medical condition deteriorated, and the doctors noted a clinical picture of rhabdomyolysis,” said Napier. “Mr. Gourley was then transferred to Health Sciences north in Sudbury by air and he was admitted to the intensive care unit in Sudbury on July 14, 2018.”
Following his admission to Health Sciences north, said Napier, “Mr. Gourley's condition, sadly, continued to deteriorate, and he died at that facility on the morning of July 17.
Over the course of the projected four-day-hearing, the inquest jurors will hear from witnesses including the coroner who performed the post-mortem and an officer who will discuss the use of force training and protocols for police interactions.
Members of the public who wish to watch the inquest can do so by video conference. The video conference link is: https://firstclassfacilitation.ca/office-of-the-chief-coroner/inquest-into-the-death-of-david-gourley.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized populations, as well as housing issues and the justice system for Sudbury.com.