Lawyers representing families of slain men during police shootings calling for joint inquest

The lawyers of two men who died following police-involved shootings are calling for a joint inquest into their deaths.

The lawyers are representing Afolabi Stephen Opaso and Bradley Singer.

Opaso was a Nigerian international student who was shot by police on New Year’s Eve after they were responding to a mental health distress call.

Singer, a 59-year-old man, died after police shot him in February when they were acting on an order under the Mental Health Act to transport him to hospital to undergo an involuntary physician examination.

“We don’t want to have an experience where in Winnipeg family members don’t want to call for help because they are fearful it might be a death sentence for their family, ” said Jean-Rene Dominique Kwilu, one of the lawyers representing the family of Opaso.

Among the reforms they are looking for include for officers to wear body-cameras, mental-health crisis workers to attend calls themselves first and then make the decision if they want to call in police and greater supports for the families whose loved ones have been killed by police.

“There’s no downside to having body-cameras, I can’t think of any downside. It protects the police, it protects people who meet with the police, it protects everyone. Otherwise, you have a police narrative,” said Martin Glazer, the lawyer representing the brother of Bradley Singer, Gerry Singer.

Financial cost of police-involved shootings on families

Singer, who said police violently entered his brother’s home, destroying it as they tried to apprehend him says, the incident has not only caused his family emotional distress but has also hurt them financially.

“Our family owes $18,000 for Bradley’s burial, our house needs about $15,000 in repairs and my brother is gone forever,” Singer said.

“They lost their loved one and they were abandoned. They have had to incur major costs for the funeral, to have the family to travel from Nigeria to Canada when they did nothing. They got no help, no assistance, no money. They have to pay for their hotel, their funeral, they had to pay for everything,” said Benjamin Nkana Bassi, who is also representing the family of Opaso.

Singer’s case continues to be investigated by Manitoba’s Independent Investigation Unit, while Opaso’s has been transferred over to Alberta’s police watchdog over conflict-of-interest concerns.