Matters No Psychopath says Psychiatrist
Thursday, October 10, 2013 @ 4:27 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Testimony at the Coroner’s inquest into the RCMP shootiing death of Greg Matters, stuttered along today as there were in court skirmishes between Counsel, and discussions which required the jury to leave the courtroom while legal experts presented their case.
Yesterday’s witness role concluded with testimony from Dr. J. Stephen, the pathologist who examined Matters’ body following the fatal shooting. The fact based testimony described in medical terms the entry and exit wounds, both through the chest, as well as the damage the bullets caused to major organs.
Family and friends of Matters were openly emotional through the testimony, sometimes having to leave the room to regain their composure.
The pathologist discussed the toxicology report, which was perused in greater detail today, with Dr. W. Schreiber available by phone for examination. He affirmed no illicit drugs were found in Matters’ system.
Traces of prescription drugs were, one for neuropathic pain, a pain killer and a sleeping pill, all within the therapeutic range. Slightly above the therapeutic range were traces of a medication used to control depression and anxiety.
Dr. David Morgan, the psychiatrist who completed a risk assessment test on Matters was on-hand to tell the jury the medication would not have caused major behavioural problems at the levels found in Matters.
Morgan spent the morning and much of the afternoon on the stand. Tasked to do a risk assessment on Matters, he said though he found the post traumatic stress disorder Matters had was disabling, he did not pick up a distinct link between that diagnosis and an increased risk of violence.
"Mr. Matters was no psychopath," he said.
Though Matters threatened to slit someone’s throat in an email to a parking company over a $30 fine he felt he got unfairly, and he threatened a previous psychologist and a member of a the CPC ( complaints against the RCMP) office in a similar fashion, Morgan perceived these as manifestations of poor communication.
Matters communicated he was upset with the RCMP dramatically, however Morgan pointed out Matters never committed a violent offence. But he was former military, and he was unhappy and upset with the police. He recommended the court seek a psychological assessment, adding the risk from Matters couldn’t be determined but didn’t seem high.
John McKay took the stand late in the afternoon. The retired RCMP inspector, with several years experience in the force, showed the court models police use when it comes to use of force, explaining the range of mid-use weapons as well as lethal weapons. An expert in emergency response, he explained when that team is deployed and why, talking about the various specialists and protocols employed.
With several witnesses left to testify, plans are underway to continue the inquest next week, after the long weekend.
Comments
“….. described in medical terms the entry and exit wounds, both through the chest …… “
So how did that happen? The bullet(s) entered through the chest (frontal?) and exited though the chest (frontal?)
If they entered from the front, did they also exit though the front?
I am failing to understand the description of the travel path of the bullet(s).
Yeah it’s all BS, cops shot this guy because they were incompetent, simple. Fire the GRC members there were responsible.
RCMP think anybody is crazy if they disagree with them, it’s embedded in their pea they call a brain.
If the bullet(s) were fired from side the entry and exit wounds could both be on the chest…transverse as opposed to front to back. Could also happen if Greg was in the process of turning away from officer who fired the shots.
Risk was high enough that he beat up his brother which he had never done before either. Enough so his brother was scared by the turn of events and mentioned it to the 911 operator
FYI John McKay is a retired Vancouver Police Dept. Inspector and use of force expert with over 30 years policing experience.
Both wounds were through the chest. tormented, cops shot this guy cause he tried to hit one with a hatchet. sounds like you are pinning the incompetence on the wrong party.
Shot twice in the back by a gang member. The gang escalated this event pure and simple with their neanderthall attitude and absolute incompetence which they demonstrate time and again. What is very alarming is the gang admits to no wrong, scary.
Can this autonomous enity be brought under control?
Can someone please tell me where all of this “shot in the back” BS comes from? The official investigation says chest, the testimony mentioned in this story says chest and people still say ‘shot in the back’? Are people that illiterate? Im not saying this was handled 100% correctly but holy crap people, can we at least debate something close to the known facts?
Seamut appears to have commented on the wrong story
Someone has a Pea for a brain “Tormented” and its YOU for making such stupid and clearly biased comments toward the RCMP.
biased lol yeah okay, what ever cop! It’s the truth 100%! Throw the bums out and retrain some good people. Trolling me isn’t going to make me loose one bit of rest jerk off!
“Could also happen if Greg was in the process of turning away from officer who fired the shots.”
I think that is what may have happened. The reaction of Matters according to the officer who tasered him was that he reared up and turned.
He did not offer a recorded opinion of whether that was voluntary or involuntary as a result of the taser.
The thing I find strange is that there is no diagram in the report of the positions of the 4 officers in relation to Matters. As I wrote elsewhere, it is an amateurish report. Not at all clear of sequential, relative positions.
I am surprised that the coroner does not seem to have such diagrams. I am sure a court of law would require them.
“clearly biased comments toward the RCMP.”
Just because comments are critical doe not mean they are biased.
You want to talk about bias. The background report on Matters identified his military past and the training he would have had in combat preparedness. That is his profile. Nothing wrong with it from the point of view of truth. But that gave the police a mindset that would make them edgy, just as was the case with the Polish fellow in Vancouver at the airport.
They come in ready for a fight. Guess what, they are part of the reason why it ended up that way.
Put in a person who wants to diffuse the situation, and you would likely end up with a diffused situation.
But they do not have that capacity here, from the looks of it. They had a whole day to prepare before going back in. There was nothing that was forcing them to go back. They could have placed a guard at the road, and let him calm down for a few days and bring in some RCMP officers who could handle the situation without ending up having to fire shots.
Let’s face it, they do not put the best hot-shot cops into PG or any place in the north.
Thank you for that gus. These are all points posters like Knowledge88 clearly know but decide not to acknowledge, because they are crazies.
I have been concerned about the gradual movement away from the RCMP’s traditional role as “peace officers”.
When RCMP show up at a scene, they should be there to restore and maintain the peace! Today it seems that when they arrive on the scene, the level of violence ramps up.
Time to look at the kind of training they are getting at the academy, might want to insert some awareness training on sexual harassment in the workplace as well… just saying…
As usual, the cop haters are having a field day.
Cop haters?
Guess what JB, the cops, are no different than any other civil servant. They are not the law onto themselves. They serve us.
Some of us do not like how they go about their business. That does not make anyone a cop hater. We are allowed to be critical of cops. This is not the Gestapo we are talking about. These are ordinary cops who are accountable to the population hey serve, not to some guy who is the dictator of the country or the province or the city.
Get over it JB!
If they cannot diffuse situations such as YVR or the Matters incident, they are simply not properly trained for it, in which case we do not blame the cops in the front lines, we blame the people at the Depot who do not train properly or the part of the agency which determines what the objectives of the training is.
I took part in one of the annual Depot simulations at CH High School as a subject. I was given a bit of an outline of what the scenario was that I was to participate in – encountering a person in the street who was supposedly drunk.
I decided not to play a drunk, but a person who had a disorder which cause him to react like a drunk. I was bantering back and forth with the student “cops”, never getting aggressive but very insistent.
Since the students had been told how to handle a drunk (that was the mindset they had) that is all they could deal with.
Eventually the officer, a female, realized she had to get the students to abandon the pre-planned tactics and re-group. She took them aside and when they came back the whole scenario changed to where they asked what I wanted (for them to go into the bar to get my friend to come out since I never go into bars) so that I could get a lift home as he normally does.
She was on the right track of thinking on her feet, assessing the situation and how it might vary from a pre-conceived notion, a rationally thinking things through.
When things go wrong, it is likely often because the cops in charge do not have the ability she had at that time.
gus: “Guess what JB, the cops, are no different than any other civil servant. They are not the law onto themselves.”
Right gus. I forgot that you have all the answers, and that you know exactly what should have been done in this situation, even though you weren’t there.
I personally find the psychiatrist’s comments to be way out of line and highly speculative. He has no idea what Mr. Matters frame of mind was on that day, although you wouldn’t guess that by his comments.
Let the investigation happen, and if it is found that there was any wrongdoing, let them be punished.
gus: “If they cannot diffuse situations such as YVR or the Matters incident, they are simply not properly trained for it”
You’re making the assumption that every situation can be diffused.
gus: “When things go wrong, it is likely often because the cops in charge do not have the ability she had at that time.”
“likely”. So you’re saying that the YVR and Matters incidents could definitely been averted… or likely? Which is it?
I have not even started…..see most of ya got square ONES,you no where the sun do not shine…ya think these COPS..A.K.A. the Scurge in RED..are GODS ..FUATHYRIO….
well.
I have it all in Black and White… Court transcripts..the lie’s of the SCURGE…how bout that.!Just like the azzwipes I got next door…4o mill on a new cop shop,I would not give em .4o cents…
^^^ Exhibit ‘A’ – One of the biggest cop haters on this site. You have to wonder how many dealings people have with them.
So “tormented”….how many times did you apply and got rejected from the Force LOL! Your comments are so absurd and you Smack of a WANNABE cop who never got in and now hates em all!! Greg Matters was ex military?! Yeah…..AND? Give me a break that he was CORNERED and responded cuz of his training. I have friends that were in JTF (look it up Moron) and they seen 20X what matters did, his serving a peace keeping mission is NOT an excuse. Hell half the RCMP have PTSD…..so does that mean they all get to threraten people and have stand offs cuz there “troubled”. Boo Hoo
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