Prince George, B.C. –  A video  of  Corporal Ryan Arnold interviewing Greg Matters  15 months before the incident  which  ended with Matters being  fatally shot at  a family owned  property on the east side of Prince George, revealed an emotional, apologetic Matters.

The interview, aired at the inquest into Matters' death,   was  done  in June of 2011, the day after Matters had been arrested for uttering  threats against  Crown Counsel.  During the  video, Matters was  visibly emotional,  and  apologetic for making  threats,  but  indicated he would never act out on  them “I’m no threat” he told Corporal Arnold,  “ I would never raise my hands against someone unless they  put their hands on me first.”

During the course of the interview, it was clear Matters was suffering with some sort of  mental illness,  he told the Corporal  he was taking medication to help him sleep, that he had  premonitions, including a feeling he would not make it to his 40th  birthday,  saying  he might die “in a car accident or something.”

As for the Corporal,  during the interview  he  suggested  Matters  undergo a psychiatric assessment, “I don’t want to be hiding out in the bushes near Pinko Road worried about what Greg Matters is going to do next.” That  is  pretty much the scenario that played out  on the day Matters died.   ERT members  were at the Pinko Road property,  Arnold was in the command  unit when  the fatal shot was fired.

But  when asked by family counsel, Cameron Ward,   why  he didn’t try to to call  Matters on September 10th, after having built a  rapport with  Matters during that   interview  from 15 months  before, Corporal Arnold  said  it wasn’t his job “I am not a trained  crisis negotiator,  It wasn’t my job or responsibility to  do that. I understood it was being done and that progress  was being made.”

The inquest continues.