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‘She fell to the ground, the knife was no longer in her hand’

New Brunswick police officer who killed Chantel Moore testifies on second day of inquest

AMY STOODLEY

FREDERICTON — Const. Jeremy Son said he shot 26-year-old Chantel Moore four times when she answered her door holding a steak knife in the early morning hours of June 4, 2020.

In giving testimony at the coroner’s inquest underway in Fredericton, it is the first time that Son has publicly given his account of the events leading to her death.

Son had gone to Moore’s apartment after her exboyfriend, Jonathan Brunet, called police from his home outside of Montreal. Brunet was concerned that there was an intruder there and that Moore could be in danger, based on disturbing text messages he received that he believed someone else was sending from Moore’s phone.

Son, who has been an officer with the Edmundston Police Force since 2008, told the jury that when he arrived at her third-floor apartment just after 2:30 a.m., he could see Moore sleeping on her couch through the balcony window. Son said he banged on the window and shone his flashlight on Moore and then on himself in an act he thought would identify him as a police officer. He then gestured to the door.

Son told the jury he could see through the window that Moore grabbed something from the kitchen counter before unlocking the door, and it was then that he grabbed his sidearm, a Glock 40 service weapon. When she opened the door, she was holding a knife up in the air and as she approached him, he said he shot her four times.

Translated for the benefit of English-speaking jury members, Son, who speaks French, said, “After that, she fell to the ground, the knife was no longer in her hand. I didn’t understand how it got to that point. I didn’t understand how the chain of events led to that event.”

Son said although he had gone to the scene alone, another member of the Edmundston Police Force had arrived on the scene just before he shot Moore, but did not witness the killing. When the second officer heard the shots fired, he called for emergency medical services.

MOTHER IN TEARS

Martha Martin sobbed as she listened to the man who killed her daughter recount her final seconds alive.

Looking down at the floor and letting out a large sigh, Son told the jury, “At the rate she was losing blood, we needed to apply aid. I turned her body around and applied compression. She had her eyes open, and she was looking everywhere. I tried to take her pulse.”

Son said Moore seemed to have a strong pulse, but after a few seconds Moore’s eye seemed fixed so he asked the other constable to check for a heartbeat. The second officer couldn’t detect a pulse and they stopped their efforts to provide first aid.

When questioned by the Crown, Son said that although officers are required to have valid first aid certification, he couldn’t recall if his was up to date in June 2020. Son also told the jury there were four patrol officers working that night, and although the Edmundston Police Force had three Tasers at the time, only one was operational and he did not have it with him.

When presented with a hypothetical scenario of whether he would have used a Taser if he had one, he said it would not have been an option because there was a threat of serious injury, and as a police officer, he is trained to stop the threat. Son said a Taser could have failed in that situation, putting his own life at risk.

At the time of the shooting, officers with the Edmundston Police Force did not wear body cameras, but instead had an audio recording device attached to their police uniforms. The jury heard that recordings were automatically activated when an officer flashed their cruiser lights or turned on emergency sirens. Officers also can prompt recording manually, but that was not done the night Moore was killed, so there is no record of events from the scene other than what was reported by the officers on site.

LISTENED IN DISBELIEF

Alma Brooks, a Maliseet Elder from St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick, has been a family support for Moore’s family since she was killed in 2020. Brooks sat with the family Tuesday, May 17, and said she does not believe the testimony she heard.

Brooks, along with Moore’s family and other Indigenous community members, held a list of names throughout Tuesday’s testimony that included nearly 2,000 Indigenous people who have been killed by police in Canada since 1987.

“Through the Native Women’s Organization, and we will be going to our national organization, which has a worldwide audience, we will be taking this issue there at that level, because something needs to be done,” Brooks said.

“We have to do this to protect our children. Open season on Indians, no more.”

Testimony will continue on Wednesday, May 18.

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