Death of Pierre Coriolan shows police lack training, Quebec coroner finds

A report by Quebec's coroner's office into the 2017 death of Pierre Coriolan, shot and killed by Montreal police, has found that officers lack sufficient training to de-escalate and communicate.

Coriolan, a 58-year-old Black man, was shot by police in his apartment building in Montreal's Gay Village on June 27, 2017. Police were responding to 911 calls about a man in distress, yelling and smashing things in his apartment. 

Six police officers in total responded to the call. They testified that they found Coriolan sitting on his couch, holding a knife and a screwdriver.

Officers testified at the coroner's inquest that after yelling at Coriolan to "drop the knife," they shot him with a Taser and rubber bullets, before firing three gunshots. 

A pathologist's report found Coriolan was shot three times and died from a hemorrhage in his abdomen. He also suffered blunt force trauma.

In his 33 page report, coroner Luc Malouin found that the six officers who responded to the shooting "provoked a chain reaction" with how they approached Coriolan, and that key information that could have affected their response was not properly disseminated. 

The 911 dispatcher had relayed to police that the man was in mental distress, but Malouin said the information that Coriolan was likely alone in his apartment was not transmitted on police radio.

Malouin noted that only one of the officers, Sgt. Jimmy-Carl Michon, had the information that Coriolan was likely alone, but did not relay this information to the other officers. 

The coroner wrote that when officers arrived and found Coriolan sitting on his couch, they should have adopted a defensive position and that only one officer should have communicated with Coriolan to avoid confusing instructions. 

Malouin noted that police had to react quickly, during an intervention that lasted only minutes.

"They did not have the luxury that we have of taking several hours to analyze the situation," Malouin wrote. 

During the coroner's inquest, a former police officer who testified as an expert witness said police require better training in de-escalation techniques. 

Malouin made 16 recommendations for police forces, the public security ministry, and Quebec's police academy, the École nationale de police du Québec (ENPQ), regarding training for officers. 

The recommendations include enhanced mandatory training on dealing with individuals in a mental health crisis, requiring yearly re-certification in de-escalation and communication techniques, and "consequences" for officers who fail this training.