Red Deer dad says Mounties needlessly shot dead mentally-ill son

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A Rooibokke man mentioned he regrets calling RCMP after he noticed an officer shoot his knife-wielding, mentally sick son to demise in what he calls a unnecessary killing.

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RCMP say Thursday afternoon they responded to a grievance of an individual threatening folks with a knife at a southeast Purple Deer dwelling and ended up capturing and killing a 33-year-old man with a service pistol “when an altercation between the person and the officers … no officers had been bodily injured throughout this incident.”

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The daddy of slain Derek Deon mentioned he was surprised and shocked when three RCMP officers entered his dwelling armed with assault rifles and confronted his son within the youthful man’s basement bed room.

“They got here in and stormed the home, there was no plan,” Vernon Deon mentioned.

“It was a whole teardown, it was fully pointless.”

The person mentioned Derek was in his mattress holding a steak knife and he was tortured when he would not put the blade down.

His terrified son then stumbled up and doing and onto the ground on one knee, nonetheless clutching the knife when he feared the worst, Vernon mentioned.

“I instructed them, ‘Do not shoot’ … all of the officer needed to do was stand again, he put himself in that place.”

He mentioned the encounter lasted solely about 30 seconds – his spouse Jane estimates as much as a minute – and ended with Derek being shot thrice by one of many officers.

The officers’ aggressive actions, he mentioned, escalated a scenario that might have been dealt with extra slowly and calmly.

“What was the push? Simply relax – it does not make sense. It is improper… it did not talk,” the daddy mentioned in a distressed voice.

“They needed to kind it out in 30 seconds after I waited all week (for assist for my son).”

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He mentioned he and his spouse had been by no means bodily threatened by Derek on the day of his demise.

Vernon mentioned the habits of son, who has suffered from schizophrenic spectrum dysfunction for the previous 5 years, worsened in latest months after he was off his treatment and he made threats in opposition to him and his spouse and neighbors.

Police attended his dwelling with Vernon final Sunday and Tuesday in hopes of taking his son to Purple Deer Hospital on a psychological well being warrant, the grieving father mentioned.

A deliberate name with a psychiatrist by no means materialized, he added.

Vernon mentioned he then obtained a psychological well being order that police signed Thursday morning from a provincial courtroom decide and when Derek verbally threatened his mother and father once more hours later, the daddy mentioned he known as RCMP, anticipating the grievance would finally immediate them to take his son to the hospital.

As an alternative, he mentioned, when the officers arrived, they “got here off like they had been going to warfare”.

“It was fully not like something we have seen within the police’s dealing with of those psychological well being points,” he mentioned.

In earlier circumstances, RCMP personnel coping with Derek have been a specialised unit augmented with a social employee or psychological well being specialist.

However on Thursday when his son was killed, that unit was apparently busy, mentioned Vernon, who disagreed with the RCMP press launch and mentioned he known as with a grievance that his son had threatened his mother and father with a knife.

And he mentioned his son was shot with a rifle, not a handgun, which police say was discharged within the incident.

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Derek, he mentioned, was pronounced useless on the scene, regardless of the efforts of the RCMP officers to avoid wasting him, his father mentioned.

His mom, Jane, mentioned: “Derek has by no means been an outright violent individual.”

Her son, she mentioned, had been hospitalized “many occasions” for psychological well being causes, most not too long ago a couple of 12 months in the past.

Alberta RCMP say they can’t remark additional on the incident or on Vernon’s allegations, noting that it’s now being investigated by the Alberta Severe Incident Response Workforce (ASIRT).

“The Alberta RCMP believes in fact-finding processes and it’s important that processes taken to evaluate the actions of all these concerned, together with the police, are honest, clear and defensible. That’s the reason, as quickly as we grew to become conscious of this incident, we instantly notified the Director of Legislation Enforcement and commenced our inner overview course of,” the RCMP’s press launch on the incident mentioned.

“The director of regulation enforcement thought of it “in scope” and instructed ASIRT to research.”

Vernon mentioned he spoke with ASIRT officers Thursday after the capturing, including he can now simply look ahead to the end result of their investigation.

Derek was a extremely creative individual, who excelled in portray, sculpture, writing and liked music, his father mentioned.

However he mentioned his son has struggled with psychological well being points since he was a teen and extra not too long ago with substance abuse challenges amid schizophrenia.

“He talked to folks in his thoughts – he known as them his ghost associates – however he was joyful,” Vernon mentioned.

“I could not get him the assistance he wanted and I could not get the police to behave.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn