Inquest Winding Down

By 250 News

    The focus today of the Coroner’s Inquest into the police shooting death of Kevin St Arnaud was on blood patterns.

Sergeant J Gallant, an expert in blood specialties testified, it is his opinion that St. Arnaud was standing, not moving towards Constable Ryan Sheremetta when he was shot three times  in the early hours of December 19th 2004 in a soccerfield in Vanderhoof.

Gallant referred to blood stains found in the snow near the body as "passive blood" dripping from a cut above St. Arnaud’s eye.  

Sergeant Gallant said it was his opinion that St. Arnaud had stood there for between 5 and 20 seconds before he was shot. In spite of efforts by the lawyer representing Sheremetta at the inquest, Gallant would not waiver in his testimony beyond saying that anything is possible, but in his expert opinion St. Arnaud was standing when shot and had been standing there for at least a few seconds.

On April 26-2005 Staff Sergeant Glen Krebs picked up a CD and spoke to Gallant about the Constable’s testimony that he was lying on his back and St. Arnaud was coming towards him when he shot. Gallant said  "I don’t believe that is what happened, it is my opinion that the person who’s body is in that picture, had been standing there, not walking, before that shooting."

Sergeant Gallant concluded, “In order for there to be that much blood near his body, there needs to be a time element of him standing there." 

Earlier at the Inquest, Constable Sheremetta testified that he fired the fatal shots, “basically when he was over top of me”.

Testimony from Earl Hall, a forensic expert, indicated the bullets had to be fired from Sheremetta’s gun from more than two feet away otherwise there would have been powder and soot burns and there were none on St. Arnaud’s jacket.

Hall said two shots were fired that went through St. Arnaud’s sleeve below his wrist, then through his body. A third shot hit St. Arnaud directly in the chest. St.Arnaud had to have his left hand across his chest when the shooting took place.

Hall testified the hand gun used in the shooting was a standard 9mm police issue that held 15 cartridges. It was his opinion based on where the shell casings landed, that the gun was fired by someone in a standing position with their arms outstretched holding the gun. He told the Inquest how he fired the gun in attempt to duplicate what had happened.

Using a target 55 inches off the ground. He said "I don’t believe that all three bullets could have been fired from someone laying on the ground".  It was his best guess that two bullets were fired from open stance and then a third bullet was fired perhaps as the shooter stepped backwards. The shell casings were not consistent with someone lying on the ground he concluded.

Constable Sheremetta has said that St. Arnaud was coming towards him, when he slipped and fell backwards.  Fearing for his life, he fired his hand gun as St. Arnaud was almost on top of him.

The pathologist had earlier testified that the bullets entered St. Arnaud’s body in a 30 to 45 degree downward angle entering the chest and exciting just above the mans tail bone.

In today’s testimony it was revealed that at the time of the shooting, St.Arnaud had in his right pocket a white bag with some vials of pills, a few bolts, some wire (perhaps welding wire) a pair of white men’s dress socks and $ 340 dollars in cash.  In his left pocket he had $13.76 cents.

No photos were taken of the contents of his pockets.

Tomorrow the inquest is expected to wind up after viewing the video recording between Sergeant Jim MacLellan and Constable Sheremetta.  That video was taken within an hour of the shooting. Earlier this week it was argued successfully that the video was not important to the jury, but today, Coroner Shane DeMeyer changed his mind and the viewing will take place Friday.

Staff Sergeant Glen Krebbs will be the final witness.  He was the lead investigator in the shooting.

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