The four-person jury for the coroner's inquest into the Greg Matters death began deliberations on Thursday morning, after sitting in on nearly three weeks of testimony.
They have been asked to determine the nature of Matters' death and to make recommendations to prevent similar events from occurring in the future.
Prior to beginning their deliberations, the jury was given instructions by coroner T.E. Chico Newell that included three suggestions from Matters' family:
- That audio-video cameras be used to record all emergency response team activity when deployed.
- That programs be developed to monitor the physical, emotional and financial health and well-being of veterans once out of the Canadian military.
- That adequate resources be made available to all veterans to ensure their physical and emotional and financial needs are met.
The first would go to the provincial government's police services director and the next two to the federal defence minister.
Newell ruled that three other recommendations the family proposed were outside the inquest's scope and could not be posed by the jury.
They called for an independent review of the Independent Investigations Office investigation of the case, which cleared RCMP of criminal wrongdoing, and that the IIO itself review and reconsider its finding.
The family also suggested the provincial government make funding available to the deceased's family to pay for legal counsel to represent them at inquests.
Matters, a military veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, was shot and killed by an RCMP emergency response team member on his family's Pineview property on the evening of Sept. 10, 2012.
The four-member team had been trying to arrest Matters, who was 40 years old at the time of his death, on assault charges after running his brother off the road during the early morning of the previous day.
When police confronted him, Matters pulled out a hatchet and an attempt to Taser him failed in the moments leading up to his death, the inquest heard.
