It's easy to forgive Tracey Matters for being less than impressed with the Independent Investigations Office's 16-page report into the shooting death of her brother Greg by Prince George RCMP in the driveway of the family's home in Pineview.
The IIO's narrow finding leaves so many questions unanswered, starting with how a middle-of the-night scrap between Greg Matters and his brother turned into a situation that required the deployment of the RCMP's emergency response team and a member of that team to fire two rounds into Matters from close range with an M-16 semi-automatic rifle?
Richard Rosenthal admits on the final page of his report that he can't answer that question and throws it back to the RCMP and to the Commission for Public Complaints Against The RCMP. Along with an investigation by the commission, it's now likely the coroners service will also hold an inquest in the death of Matters.
The decision to send out the emergency response team to deal with Matters and the decisions made by members of the team once they got to his property are central to this case.
The last time the Prince George team was sent out was to apprehend Robert Lee Milligan, 30, during the last week of April in a home in the Quinson neighbourhood. Milligan was a wanted man, facing charges of uttering threats, pointing a firearm, possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of a firearm while knowingly unlicenced and possession of a firearm while prohibited. He was considered armed and dangerous, with "an extensive history of violence and unpredictability with both the public and the police." In other words, for the safety of themselves and residents, the RCMP used its elite squad to apprehend Milligan because of the serious threat he posed to the community.
Contrast that to Matters, who was wanted for running his brother off the road in the middle of the night, punching him in the face and then telling a police officer that he would kill his brother or anyone else who would come into his yard and threaten him. The investigating officer didn't even mention the threats to his colleagues, asking that his day shift colleagues arrest Matters for dangerous driving, assault with a weapon, assault and breach of a peace bond (Matters had a restraining order on him from April 2012 to stay away from his brother).
These charges are far less serious than what Milligan was wanted for, with no mention of firearms, yet they warranted the same response - the dispatch of the emergency response team.
Matters clearly irritated police officers and 911 dispatchers. He called 911 five times in two hours after the confrontation with his brother to report the incident, then to find out if his brother was in custody and then to tell them he knew where his brother was. He did not come down to the detachment the following afternoon when asked and then eluded the four officers who came out to arrest him.
At 1:54 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2012, officers saw a vehicle driving in the field between the Matters property and a neighbouring property. Believing it was Matters, they raced out to the site, breaking open a gate to do so.
"The officers were unsuccessful in locating Mr. Matters and left the property believing it was too dangerous to confront Mr. Matters in the absence of ERT officers," Rosenthal wrote in his report.
But why did they believe Matters was so dangerous?
The report doesn't say.
The emergency squad was dispatched at 2:07 p.m., partly because of the concerns of a police negotiator Matters had spoken to numerous times in the last 18 hours.
By 4:15 p.m., the team was assembled on the site.
Three hours later, Matters was dead.
While the IIO report answered some questions (Matters was armed with a hatchet when he was shot and an effort to Taser him didn't work), its analysis barely scratched the surface.
Now Tracey Matters and the rest of her family have to wait months longer to see if the RCMP complaints commission or a coroner's inquest can delve deeper into the death of Greg Matters and hopefully offer a proper explanation of why he was shot and killed.
