Rifle was pointed toward police before officers fired, inquest into Joshua Megeney's death hears

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Two Saskatoon police officers who fired shots several hours before Joshua Megeney was found dead did so after a rifle was pointed at them, according to testimony at the coroner's inquest into Megeney's death.

The inquest began Monday morning in Saskatoon. A six-person jury is hearing about the incident, which started when police responded at about 9:15 a.m. to a reported break-and-enter and came upon an armed man. 

Sgt. Kyla Hicks, the lead investigator of Megeney's shooting, said Megeney had barricaded himself in the second-floor master bedroom of a home on Avenue Q North on the morning of Oct. 6, 2016, and that police were told by the homeowner that there were several weapons locked safely in the closet.

Found dead with chocolate bar in his hand

Officers rammed the door of the bedroom, then retreated to the bottom of the stairs leading to the bedroom. 

Megeney was then seen pointing a rifle in the direction of two officers at the bottom of the stairs, prompting those officers to fire a combined total of three rounds, Hicks said. 

Megeney was found dead hours later inside the bedroom, a rifle resting on his legs, a chocolate bar in his right hand and a box of 22-calibre ammunition in his back pocket.

"It's not impossible for a person to hold two things at the same time," Hicks said of the chocolate bar. 

The rifle was loaded but the bolt was open, meaning the weapon could not have fired. 

Two other loaded weapons were found in the closet.

Megeney died of a gunshot to the head, Hicks said. 

Police did not know during the confrontation that they were dealing with Megeney. It was later in the evening — after a police robot had entered the bedroom through a window to find Megeney's body and Megeney was fingerprinted — that his identity was confirmed. 

Saskatoon police's crisis negotiation team never spoke to Megeney because the phone line to the house had been cut, Hicks said.

"Every situation like this, the goal is to have it end peaceful," Hicks said. 

Crystal meth — which can make a person "excitable" — was found in Megeney's system by a forensic pathologist, Hicks added.

Attempts at communication

Police attempted to coax Megney out of the room from a distance of about three metres, and Megeney expressed a willingness to talk after the bedroom door was rammed, Hicks said under questioning from police lawyer Bruce Wirth. 

Megeney told officers at the scene that he had a lot of firearms with him while, earlier, the homeowner had told police that he had several guns in the bedroom but that the gun safe could be opened with a hammer.

Police eventually found the key to the safe on the bedroom floor, Hicks said.  

There was no "throw phone" at the scene to establish contact with Megeney before he was shot. Spencer suggested officers could have slipped their personal cellphones to Megeney.

"It is a possibility," said Hicks. 

Spencer also questioned the line-of-sight re-enactments done of the scene, suggesting that a dresser found by the door where Megeney was standing would have blocked officers' view of Megeney. 

Preventing similar deaths

The week-long inquest is not a criminal proceeding but rather a fact-finding process that asks a jury of six civilians to conclude how and by what means a person died. The choices are suicide, homicide, accidental, natural causes or "undetermined."

The coroner's jury — four women and two men — can also make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.

"You have the opportunity of turning a very difficult and tragic event into something good by making practical recommendation to avoid similar tragedies in the future," coroner Alma Wiebe told jurors Monday.  

Saskatoon Police Service's own Major Crimes unit investigated Megeney's death. At the request of the police service, an investigation observer was tapped by the Ministry of Justice to oversee that police investigation.