Officer, siblings testify at coroners inquest into police shooting death of man with schizophrenia

The sister of a man killed by police in his Maple Ridge home over two years ago told a coroners inquest that officers ignored her request to hold off on approaching her brother until older siblings could arrive and help calm the situation.

Kyaw Naing Maung, 54, was suffering a psychotic episode when he was shot to death in his bedroom on Aug. 11, 2019.

Police and ambulance paramedics attended the house after Yin Yin Din, Maung's sister and housemate, called 911 to request he be taken to hospital, as had happened previously without incident when Maung had become ill after going off his schizophrenia medication. 

But this time Maung, who did not speak English, told his sister in Burmese he did not want to go to the hospital, which she translated to police.

Din testified she also asked an attending officer to wait five minutes, because their older siblings were on their way to the home and Maung always co-operated with them. 

"My older brother and sister were coming and Kyaw would listen to them," she said. "My older brother and sister would de-escalate the situation ... and then this incident would never occur and he would be alive today."

Both Din and brother Min Aung, who also lived at the house, departed from the question-and-answer format of their testimony to insist there had been a cover-up and that the police involved should be charged with murder.

Presiding coroner Donita Kuzma asked them to "refrain from saying that," and to instead suggest ways police could have improved their handling of the situation.

Coroners inquests are not responsible for finding legal responsibility or making legal conclusions but coroners juries can make recommendations aimed at preventing deaths under similar circumstances.

In September 2020, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C., which examines police-related deaths, said although "tragic," the case did not meet the bar for criminal negligence. 

Din told the inquest that when Maung was off his medication, he often started believing that people he saw on TV were trying to hurt him. She said he quickly returned to his normal "peaceful" self when his medication was restarted.

Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Daniel Losiak, the first officer on scene, said he was dispatched to what was described as a "domestic dispute in progress" between a brother and sister. He said the initial information was that Maung was off his medication, didn't recognize Din and wanted to harm her. 

Losiak described using Din as a translator, both to tell Maung in Burmese through his bedroom door what police were saying, and to translate Maung's replies back to police in English. He said Maung sounded "agitated" and "angry."

He said Din informed police that Maung possibly had a small knife that he used to cut food with. Additionally, a records check showed that there was a firearm in the house owned by the other brother.

According to Losiak, he and another officer determined Maung should be apprehended under Section 28 of the Mental Health Act, because he was schizophrenic, off his medication and presenting a danger to himself and others.

A supervising officer with a conducted energy weapon or Taser, as it's more commonly known, was called to the house. Losiak said when Maung's door was first opened, a weighted disk like those used in weightlifting was thrown at police "frisbee style," something both Din and Aung dispute. 

Losiak said he heard officers in front of him yell "knife, knife, knife" and "Taser, Taser, Taser," before hearing two or three gunshots.

The inquest continues on Wednesday with the scheduled testimony of two more attending police officers. It is slated to wrap up on Monday, March 7.