“The effects of the trauma we have experienced over the last few years continues to be a daily challenge, but this effort to find answers and seek some justice has helped us move one step closer to healing."
The Ottawa Police Service has settled a lawsuit launched by the family of Gregory Ritchie, a 30-year-old Indigenous man whose shooting death by two officers in 2019 further inflamed tensions between police and the city’s marginalized communities.
Ritchie’s family, his brother Nick and sister-in-law Chantel, called for Ritchie’s death to be a “catalyst for change” in a statement released Thursday through their lawyers, Lawrence Greenspon and Ewan Lyttle.
The wrongful death lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount earlier this month, the statement said.
Ritchie, who was dealing with mental health issues, was struck twice with a stun gun and then fatally shot by constables Thanh Tran and Daniel Vincelette in the parking lot of Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre on Jan. 31, 2019.
“The effects of the trauma we have experienced over the last few years continues to be a daily challenge, but this effort to find answers and seek some justice has helped us move one step closer to healing,” Ritchie’s family said in the statement.
“Our hope is that as we continue to heal we can continue to share Gregory’s story and it can be a catalyst for change. The lack of cultural and psychological empathy and training amongst some law enforcement is a danger to both officers and the community at large.
“Our desire is to see those in authority be able to build and earn our trust in their ability to work with our communities in a more peaceful manner where the result does not end in tragedy and violence.”
The officers were not charged in Ritchie’s death following a year-long investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit.
According to the SIU investigation, Ritchie was reported to police shortly before 8 a.m. by OC Transpo special constables who said they saw a man holding a knife in his jacket near the shopping mall.
“Although 911 had been advised that Mr. Ritchie was carrying a knife, no knife was ever located,” the Greenspon Granger Hill law firm said in a statement Thursday. “Mr. Ritchie, in fact, held a traditional artifact, a stone attached to a stick.”
The SIU report said the two responding constables attempted to resolve the “confrontation” with Ritchie, who, the officers claimed, was “threatening” the officers with the object, described in the report as a “stone axe.”
Ritchie was struck by two shots from the officers’ Conducted Energy Weapon (or Taser), which “failed to immobilize” him, the SIU concluded in February 2020.
The two officers fired 11 shots when, according to the SIU, Ritchie “advanced threateningly toward the officer with the object in hand.”
Ritchie was struck by three of the shots. He died in hospital.
The entire incident — from the time the officers were dispatched to the moment Ritchie was fatally shot — spanned five minutes.
SIU director Joseph Martino wrote in his decision that he was “unable to reasonably conclude that either subject officer acted unlawfully when they discharged their firearms at (Ritchie). They did so, in my view, under the reasonable apprehension that it was necessary to protect (the officer) from grievous bodily harm or death…”
The impact of Ritchie’s death on his family “reinforces the need for change,” Tina Hill said in a joint statement from the lawyers representing the family.
“Despite the Mental Health Response Strategy that the Ottawa police launched in January 2021, there has been no concrete action taken in the more than two years since to address the ongoing challenges of the mentally ill and their interactions with the police. Real change has to happen,” Greenspon said.
Lyttle said Ritchie’s death “underscores the urgency with which the police must take meaningful steps to improve their education, training, interactions and understanding as it relates to dealing with Indigenous people.”
Ottawa Police Services Board chair Suzanne Valiquet said in a statement Thursday that Ritchie’s death was “very tragic and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones.”
Valiquet said the OPSB “remains supportive of any training for the members of the OPS that better equips them to serve the community” and pointed to recent budget investments aimed at making “meaningful progress on equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as improving their interactions with Indigenous people.”
Valiquet said the OPS was continuing to work on improvements to calls for service requiring social and mental health response, including a “call referral initiative to evaluate and define the types of calls that can be referred and identify community partnerships.”
ahelmer@postmedia.com
