The jury in the coroner’s inquest into the 2012 death of a Richmond man following a police standoff has come back with several recommendations for police and the ministries of health and education.
The jury delivered its verdict late Tuesday afternoon after more than a week of testimony from several witnesses in the death of 48-year-old Mehrdad Bayrami who was shot by Delta police Const. Jordan MacWilliams during an armed standoff outside the Starlight Casino in New Westminster.
Following deliberations, the five-person jury came back with several recommendations for the Coroners Service, police services and the ministries of education and health.
Many of the recommendations centre around public awareness and education on mental health, improving access to services and reducing the stigma around mental illness.
The jury recommended that police services in the province create a system to flag and automatically initiate a review of multiple calls or files relating to a single person with the goal of initiating intervention, if needed.
It was also recommended that all police emergency response teams establish a formal agreement with a number of psychologists to support negotiators during incidents.
The jury also recommended that the Ministry of Health create a directory of mental health early intervention services that is available to both medical professionals and the general public; and that the Ministry of Education create a curriculum for kindergarten through to Grade 12 that addresses mental health issues.
The inquest heard last week how Const. MacWilliams was a member of the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team (MIERT) at the time and was one a several officers who responded to the call of a domestic disturbance at the Starlight Casino in New Westminster on the morning of Nov. 8, 2012.
Bayrami was armed with a gun and had briefly taken ex-girlfriend Tetiana Piltsina hostage in the parking lot.
Piltsina testified that, before the incident at the casino, Bayrami was harassing her after they broke up in 2012, but Richmond RCMP didn’t take it seriously, at first.
Piltsina told police she was scared and Bayrami was following her everywhere and even put a GPS tracker in her car. He also called her 60 to 70 times a day.
Piltsina said a female Richmond Mountie finally became involved and actually listened.
- A coroner’s inquest is usually required when a death occurs while a person is in police custody. It involves a jury and a presiding coroner. The inquest is not a trial to determine guilt, or find fault.
