Police chief expects coroner’s inquest for fatal shooting

Regina Police Chief Evan Bray says he’s expecting a provincial coroner’s inquest into the deadly shooting that left a 41-year-old man dead earlier this month.

Speaking on 980 CJME’s Gormley on Monday morning, Bray said the next step is for Regina police members to start an internal investigation into the shooting.

“There’s an investigation that takes place, with appointed oversight, independent provincial oversight through the whole investigation,” he said. “It’s about being able to gather the details into what happened, what led up to the events and ultimately preparing for a coroner’s inquest.”

Early on May 4, police were called to an apartment in Regina’s heritage neighbourhood, where they found Geoff Morris. Police said he allegedly had taken a woman hostage with a knife.

At a news conference that day, Bray said, “ultimately, an officer made a decision to discharge a firearm as an acceptable level of force to stop a situation because of a fear he had that someone else could be seriously injured.”

Bray said an inquest would be helpful, because it would give the public details about “what happened, what led up to that,” and ultimately, “the hope that we can come up with some recommendations that we can prevent further deaths from happening.”

The police chief confirmed that Regina police members with the major crimes unit will do the investigation into the shooting.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick