Prince George, B.C.- The  Coroner’s Inquest into the police shooting death of Greg Matters in September of 2012,  continues today, with Constable  Brian Merriman on the stand.

Merriman was  leading the Emergency Response Team on the ground at the Matters’ property   with the intent to  “extract “ him from the property.  Matters  was  to be arrested in  connection with an incident that had taken place at the home of his mother, Lorraine Matters, about 24 hours before.

He told the  inquest,  Matters was spotted coming  down the driveway, and was seen to have  what he  referred to as a “fantasy” axe in his hand.  The handle was about 12” long, the blade , a shiny stainless look, and curved.   “He was  very wild” testified Constable Merriman “His eyes were wide, very excited,  his arms were  moving erratically,  he was waving his arms and yelling at us to get off the property.”

It is because  there was a visible weapon spotted that the Police dog was not deployed.  It is standard procedure not to send in a dog if there is known to be a risk to  the  animal.  Instead,  Merriman called for  Constable Reddemen, who had  the  CEW (taser) to come forward.  While saying  he  never actually gave a command for the  CEW  to be  deployed ,  it was deployed,  but  had no effect on Matters.  Merriman says he kept his eyes  on  Cst. Reddemen  “I was focused on Matt (Reddemen) , I didn’t see what Greg Matters was doing”   seconds  later, he  heard the shots fired  that took  Matters’ life . 

The Coroner’s Inquest cannot  lay blame,  it can only determine  when, where and how a person  died, and  make recommendations  to  prevent a similar tragedy in the future.   Counsel for  the Coroner  has been dropping hints  for recommendations,   asking  Constable Merriman if he would support a recommendation  that the RCMP look at  more training on use of the “bean bag shot gun” which is a less lethal  weapon.  Merriman said yes,  that he likely would have opted to have  put that  tool to work in the Matters case had  he been more familiar with it.   Counsel also asked if perhaps the Constable would  support  the RCMP examining  outfitting  an ERT with  an “attack” dog. Merriman was not so confident about supporting that  idea,  as  the animal would still not likely be deployed if there was a known threat to  the animal’s life.

Today, the inquest resumes with the cross examination of Constable Merriman, and if time allows,  the  testimony of Constable Reddemen.