'We just want accountability': Family of 35-year-old killed in police shooting last month speaks out

When she closes her eyes, all Edith Erhirhie can see is the face of her brother Moses, fatally shot in a confrontation with police late last month.

The last time Erhirhie saw the 35-year-old was at a viewing last Friday at the provincial coroner's office, she said. Erhirhie spoke to CBC News ahead of a candle-light vigil planned for the Markham plaza where her brother was fatally shot on Jan. 21.

"What I'm going to remember is the look on his face," Erhirhie said through tears. "How long did he suffer?" 

According to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the province's police watchdog, a York Regional Police officer "came upon" Moses Erhirhie outside a vehicle in a shopping plaza at about 9:15 p.m. at Fairburn Drive and Highway 7.

The SIU said in an earlier news release that a woman in the vehicle was arrested at the scene. York Regional Police have said the woman was taken into custody in connection with firearms offences.

Erhirhie says her family was told by the SIU that police received a call about a suspicious person in the parking lot, that there was an "interaction" with police, and that her brother had been shot and died in hospital. 

That information, she says, came about 24 hours after SIU investigators first told his girlfriend her vehicle had been involved in a police shooting. 

"I was hoping it was mistaken identity," Erhirhie's said. "Until I saw his body — then I knew it was real."

The vehicle was released to his girlfriend last week, but not before she had to pay $900 to retrieve it, said Erhirhie.

"It was full of blood," she said.

Now, nearly two weeks on, the family is plagued with questions they say require answers. Among them, wonders Erhirhie: would things have unfolded the same way had her brother not been Black?

"How does this happen? Don't these officers have training in de-escalation, don't they have Tasers or beanbags or pellets? Why does it have to go deadly force?" Erhirhie asked.

"I think automatically when you're a person of colour and you have an interaction with police.... they have a preconceived notion about you."

On Thursday, the SIU issued a news release asking for help to identify the driver of a vehicle in the shopping plaza at the time Erhirhie was shot, saying it believed the individual may have information related to the investigation.