Prince George, B.C. –  With 26 witnesses having already testified, the inquest into the Police shooting death of Greg Matters  has resumed.

Supporters of the Matters’ family  had arrived this morning  with  posters  calling for  “Justice for Greg Matters”,  posters they were advised would not be allowed in the court room.

On the stand this morning, Corporal  Ryan Arnold, leader of the Emergency Response Team.

Lawyer Cameron Ward, representing the Matters’ family,  has been pressing the issue that the   plan  for extracting Mr. Matters from the rural  Prince George property had not been “signed off”  that  the commanding officer did not  put a signature to it. That , says Corporal Arnold, is because  situations are fluid, and it all depends on how  fast  things were unfolding.

Ward   posed the statement that Matters  “was  in a cabin on a fairly remote  section of  land with  his dog and a book,  there simply was no emergency on that day to justify the deployment of the ERT”.  But Corporal Arnold  made  it clear  police understood they were dealing with   a person who was “arrestable,  refused to surrender to police  and therefore was considered barricaded” in the rural property.

Corporal Ryan testified   the ERT was called into action at 2:15 on September 10th, and   at  6:50 wrote in his notes “Badger was willing to surrender , emerged  from target residence but  seems to have been spooked by  Airforce 4”.  Airforce 4 was the helicopter that was circling overhead.

15 minutes later,  Matters was shot dead.

The inquest  has  three more police officers and  an Independent  Investigations Office investigator to hear from before the jury will start deliberations.

The inquest cannot  assess blame, it can only estasblish when , where and how  a death occurred and make recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.