Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s brother says police had time to see she wasn’t dangerous

3:17 SIU says no charges in death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet

Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s brother told a coroner’s inquest into her death Wednesday that the police officers who responded to reports of a fight involving knives had time to see that neither she nor her family members were a threat once they arrived at the scene.

Reece Korchinski previously testified that the five police officers called to the family’s west-end Toronto home in the late afternoon of May 27, 2020, treated his sister like a suspect and took an “aggressive” tone toward her.

Korchinski said today that while he understood that police had received information about a fight and knives and some injuries, the officers had the opportunity to assess the situation directly and see that neither he, his sister or their mother posed a risk.

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Under questioning from a lawyer representing the police union, he said the officers would have seen that the dispute was over by the time they arrived and should have let his sister go into the apartment alone instead of going in with her.

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Korchinski-Paquet fell to her death from the apartment’s 24th-floor balcony while police were in the unit.

The inquest has heard that she had a history of seizures from epilepsy, often followed by confusion and aggressive behaviour, and had experienced two seizures that day.

Korchinski-Paquet, her brother and their mother all called 911 to report a fight that day, and each mentioned her diagnosis and seizures on the calls.

Korchinski-Paquet’s mother, Claudette Beals, testified that she called 911 hoping that police would take her daughter to Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

On Tuesday, Beals said she now feels police should not be involved in incidents involving people experiencing a crisis.