19-year-old hugged friend and said 'I love you' before fatal police shooting, inquest hears

An inquest into the April 2018 death of 19-year-old Quinn MacDougall started Monday with the victim's father Keith MacDougall, his girlfriend Melanie Schronk, and his best friend from elementary school Michael Turner appearing as witnesses.

MacDougall was fatally shot during an interaction with Hamilton police after making several distraught 911 calls, reporting a man with a gun who he said was out to get him. He died in hospital after he was shot near his home, shortly after police arrived. 

The teen's father, Keith MacDougall, said he and his son spoke both face-to-face and on the phone on the day of his death. MacDougall struggled to hold back tears as he read a statement on behalf of himself, his son's mother, stepfather and two sisters. 

"He was a good son, brother, uncle and friend, and we miss him every single day," MacDougall said.

MacDougall said their first conversation the day Quinn died happened as he was picking up his daughter to go and help her paint a room to which she was moving. 

"So, when I sat down for about 10 minutes, I sat across from him and I was needling him a bit about not paying lately for gas, for all the rides I had given him. I didn't particularly care about the money, but I was trying to make the point about self-sufficiency to him," MacDougall said.

"After the discussion, he stuck his arm up, smiled and said, 'Are we cool?' I said, of course we are, and he gave me a hug."

It wasn't until about 4:45 that evening, so two hours later that I received a call from his sister, who had told me that he was shot and passed away.- Melanie Schronk, Quinn MacDougall's girlfriend

MacDougall said they spoke again around mid-afternoon, on the phone, and his son told him about "threats he received earlier on that day over Snapchat." 

"He asked me what he should do about them. I advised him to call the police and to speak with his step dad, Dave, about the matter, and that I'd be back in a few hours to discuss it further," MacDougall said. 

"This is just a brief snapshot of our son, Quinn, so you can understand him a little bit."

SIU cleared police officers

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario's police watchdog, has cleared the police officers involved in the teen's death of any misconduct. 

The SIU also reported that multiple witnesses came forward alleging that Quinn was armed with a knife at the time of the interaction, and that he lunged at the officers with it.

Schronk, who was the second witness to take the stand, said on the day of Quinn's death, she awoke to find "a few messages that were a bit concerning." 

She said that in the Instagram messages "he was just talking about how he felt life was somewhat pointless and that he wanted to die." 

Schronk said it "was definitely out of character for him to be so down about life." 

'He was just crying and upset'

She said she reached out to Quinn to ask him why he felt that way and he replied in "a sarcastic light," saying "my life is bad."

"I essentially told him, if you thought that life was bad, you know, he should do something or he should change something about his situation that would make it better," she said. 

Schronk said later that day, while she was at school in Toronto, Quinn messaged her to say he was feeling pretty down.

At the end of school as she was heading home, Schronk said she and Quinn spoke. 

"He had called my cellphone number and at that moment, he was very distressed. But it wasn't like he was verbalizing his distress. He was just crying and upset," she said. 

No answer on Snapchat

Schronk said when she got home she sent Quinn a few messages on Snapchat to see if everything was OK but said she never got an answer. 

"It wasn't until about 4:45 that evening, so two hours later, that I received a call from his sister, who had told me that he was shot and passed away," Schronk said. 

He walked me out to the sidewalk and he hugged me, said, 'I love you,' and then by the time I walked back to my house, I heard the gunshots. I just had an intuition feeling in my stomach that things weren't all good.- Michael Turner, Quinn MacDougall's friend

Turner, who lives about five minutes away, was with Quinn shortly before he died.

He said Quinn had texted him more than once on April 3, 2018, asking him to come over because he wanted somebody to talk to. 

"I think he just wanted some company that day, and he just wanted to see somebody there, so of course, I'm going to go down there, you know what I mean," Turner said.

Just wanted to talk

"It wasn't uncommon for him to just want to hang out or something like that with me, but he did seem a little bit off … so I wanted to go down there to see him quickly and see what was going on."

Turner said when he got to Quinn's house, they were in the basement  but "there wasn't too much being said."

Turner said Quinn left the basement at one point and was gone for between two to five minutes. 

He said when Quinn returned to the basement he was on the phone with 911 and was telling the person on the other end of the line that he heard gunshots.

"I wasn't sure what to think, it was a shock, if anything, and just very out of the blue," Turner said.

Turner said he left shortly after.

Hearing gunshots while walking home

"He walked me out to the sidewalk and he hugged me, said 'I love you,' and then by the time I walked back to my house, I heard the gunshots. I just had an intuition feeling in my stomach that things weren't all good."

"...I heard the shots and something wasn't easy in my stomach and I couldn't get a hold of him and I had to find out later in the night."

The inquest is mandatory under the Coroners Act. It will examine the events leading up to and surrounding the teen's death. It is expected to last 10 days and will call upon approximately 21 witnesses.

Coroner Dr. David Eden is presiding over the inquest, which also includes Graham Leach as inquest counsel; Margaret Hoy, who's representing the MacDougall family; Gary Clewley, representing two Hamilton police officers; Marco Visentini, representing Hamilton Police Service; Brian Whitehead, counsel for the Ministry of the Solicitor General; and Ryan Ing, articling student assisting Whitehead.

The scheduling of the inquest was previously delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.