'One person was shot five times and two officers were traumatized'; Inquest into police shooting death continues

An inquest into the shooting death of an eastern Ontario man continued on Tuesday in Kanata.

Babak Saidi was shot dead while police were trying to arrest him outside an OPP detachment in Morrisburg.

“One person was shot five times and two officers were traumatized. Something did go wrong,” said Elly Saidi, Babak’s sister.

The 43-year-old was mentally ill and considered violent by police, but to his family he was more than his struggles.

“My brother was a beautiful person,” said Elly Saidi. “Some people just know him as the guy who had the mental health illness, but he was much more than that, he was generous, loving, and a very pure hearted man.”

On the day he died, Saidi was at the detachment for a mandatory check-in relating to a previous charge.

When police tried to arrest him, an altercation started.

One of the officers involved in the arrest, who did not fire the shots, gave a tearful testimony on Tuesday.

“I’m sorry to the family. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose a loved one in that manner and I’m very sorry,” said the OPP Constable.

The officer said she wasn’t aware of a threat assessment that was being done on Saidi and only knew he could be violent from a flag on the Canadian Police Information System.

“What we have been trying to learn about is the type of training that the officers receive, and trying to understand the context in which this death occurred in terms of processes and protocols,” said Prabhu Rajan, the inquest lawyer.

An SIU report reveals that after the altercation with Saidi started, a male officer was hit in the head with a police radio. The officer then tried to hit Saidi to restrain him, but that didn’t work. Next, he used a Taser, which also had no effect on Saidi. The report indicates that Saidi grabbed the Taser and it was discharged again. The OPP officer then took out his firearm and while Saidi continued to come at him, shot five bullets, striking him each time.

“There’s been some major inefficiencies in how to do an arrest, for an individual who has a mental health illness,” said Elly Saidi.

A police sergeant involved in training police testified Tuesday and said officers are trained in de-escalation every three years. The sergeant said officers complete about two hours of mental health training annually.

Ontario’s police watchdog investigated the shooting and decided to lay no charges against the OPP officer.

The inquest aims to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future.