Two Hamilton police officers who shot and killed Erixon Kabera last November will not be criminally accused, says the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
On November 9, two officers fired up to 24 bullets in Kabera in the hall of his apartment building before collapse, said the guard dog of the Ontario Police in his report published on Friday. He had been holding a reply gun, which officers confused with a true firearm.
Kabera, a father of three 43 -year -old children, was taken to the Hamilton General Hospital with eight bullet wounds, including some on his back, and declared himself dead in the early hours of November 10.
“In my evidence assessment, there are no reasonable reasons to believe that any of the officials committed a criminal offense in relation to the death of the plaintiff,” said SIU director Joseph Martino, in the report.
Family members, friends and members of the Rwanda community in Canada, of which Kabera were part, have been asking for police and SIU responses since their death.
Kabera’s family is “disappointed with the investigations of the investigation,” they said in a statement on Friday.
“Erixon was loved by many and is deeply surprised by his family, his friends and his community in both Canada and Rwanda,” said the statement, published through the law firm that represents them, Falconers LLP.
The statement said the family is now “considering their legal options.”
The Hamilton Police Service said in a statement on Friday morning that recognizes “the deep impact that this incident has on Erixon’s family, the community in general and our members.”
“For now, our service is still committed to meeting with Erixon’s family and the leaders of the Rwanda community to find a path to follow when the community is ready,” HPS said in the statement.
An officer involved declined to be interviewed
One of the two officers involved refused to be interviewed by the SIU, as is his legal right, but launched his notes, Martino said. The other officer was interviewed, but did not release his notes. The SIU also interviewed several witnesses, reviewed 911 calls, police radio recordings, forensic and physical evidence and the forensic report.
According to Siu’s report, the Police were called at approximately 4:30 pm on November 9 to the fifth floor of a Main Street W. Apartment building a resident had reported that a man had been knocking on his door and seemed to be holding a gun.
“He would proceed to enter and leave his apartment several times, approaching the door to [resident’s] Apartment … To touch the door, turn the door handle and asked to let it in, “the report said.
The report does not name Kabera, but refers to him as “the plaintiff.”
When the two officers arrived, they found the man, Kabera, in the hall. They called him when he entered his apartment and closed the door, but then came out again.
“The plaintiff held what seemed to be a gun in his right hand at the waist level, pointing to the floor,” the report said. “The object in possession of the plaintiff was not a firearm, although it did give the appearance of being a genuine semi -automatic gun.”
He raised the reply weapon in the direction of the officers and walked towards them, the report said.
“He met immediately with the officers’ shots,” said the SIU.
The officers fired multiple rounds while retiring, but the bullets “had no effect on the plaintiff who continued advancing in the officers,” the report said. One of the officers also used a taser about him.
Then, the other officer shot seven or eight more shots, and Kabera collapsed and landed on his back. Police did first aid before the paramedics arrived.
One of the officers was bleeding after being injured on the back of his head. He had mistakenly thought that Kabera had shot that shot, but actually came from the other officer.
“An honest but wrong belief in the highly loaded atmosphere that prevailed,” Martino said.
The initial statement of November 10 of SIU had said that there was an exchange of shots between a man and the police, but the next day, the SIU issued another statement clarifying that, based on “more investigation”, “it did not seem that the man unloaded a gun”, but that two police officers did.
Martino determined that the officers believed that they had to shoot their weapons to Kabera to protect themselves and that he was holding a gun.
“A new retirement or withdrawal could have been available for officers, but it was not viable given the speed at which the events were developed and the presence of residents of the fifth floor, whose security would have been in danger,” the director wrote.
Family waiting for answers for more than 200 days
Kabera’s death caused protests from his family, friends, members of the black community in Hamilton and beyond.
He was the eldest of five brothers and father of three teenage children.
His brother Parfait Karekezi said previously that Kabera was “everything” for him.
“Erixon was not only my brother, he was my friend. It was my model to follow. It was my mentor,” he told CBC Hamilton.
He said Kabera was his “confidant” and someone “who had all my secrets.”
Since November 10, Karekezi and other family members and the community of Kabera have been asking for transparency around what happened that night and responsibility for their death.
On its website, the SIU says it aims to complete the investigations within 120 days, but Kabera’s report took more than 200 to leave.
“In some cases, including death cases, researchers may need to wait for experts and external agencies to complete reports such as toxicology and pathology reports,” said a SIU spokesman for CBC Hamilton.
“We understand how difficult the wait for people involved in our investigations, including the families of those who have been seriously injured or who have died.”
In Friday’s SIU report, Police Guardian dog said Kabera’s postmortem exam was received from the Forensic Office on May 12.
‘They killed him like a dog’
Yves Ikobe, another Kabera brother, told CBC previously that his brother had “multiple” gunshot wounds and broken bones. He also said that there were at least six or seven bullets that hit the wall, so he saw in the department of Kabera.
“They killed him like a dog,” he said.
Ikobe was one of the around 400 people who gathered outside the Hamilton City Council in the days after Kabera’s death to cry.
“It was a very friendly soul,” Ikobe told the crowd that night.
