Family of Beau Baker march to police detachment, demand justice
KITCHENER — They stood in the foyer of the Kitchener police detachment demanding answers.
By Liz Monteiro Record Reporter, Waterloo Region Record
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
KITCHENER — They stood in the foyer of the Kitchener police detachment demanding answers.
They chanted: “Justice delayed, justice denied. No justice, no peace.”
“What do we want? An inquiry,” shouted back about 20 people who gathered Tuesday to show their support for Beau Baker’s family.
“When do we want it? Now,” they yelled.
Baker, a 20-year-old Kitchener man, was shot and killed by a Waterloo Regional Police officer three years ago.
Baker, who had mental health issues, was shot after reportedly advancing on police with a knife outside his Brybeck Crescent apartment.
The province’s deputy chief coroner said in 2016 that an inquest would be held. But the family is still waiting on a date.
At the Frederick Street police detachment, Baker’s mother Jackie asked the officer at the front desk if someone could answer her question, “Can you tell me who killed my son?”
Jackie said her son wasn’t a “bad guy” or a criminal robbing people or beating people up.
“No, Beau didn’t have to die,” she said.
“We would like to know the name of the officer who shot Beau Baker that night,” said Davin Charney, lawyer for the Baker family.
“This is nothing short of a coverup,” he said.
Charney, who sent a letter to the Ontario’s chief coroner last week, said the family has waited too long to get answers in the death of their son.
“An inquest is a way for the truth to come out,” he said.
But the longer it takes to happen, the more the integrity of an inquiry is undermined, he said.
The police must be held accountable when it comes to police shootings that are preventable, he said.
“People loved Beau. People cared about Beau. He was struggling with mental health issues and he should have been dealt with in a caring way,” Charney said.
Supt. Chris Goss eventually addressed the group telling them he couldn’t release the name of the officer involved in Baker’s shooting.
“We cannot release the name,” he said. “We have cooperated with the SIU (Special Investigations Unit).”
“There is a process and we have cooperated with the process,” Goss said.
Charney asked Goss to tell Chief Bryan Larkin that the family wants the name of the officer released and asked that the chief speak publicly about possible changes that should take place to prevent similar deaths.
“I certainly will undertake to convey that message,” Goss told Charney.
Earlier, the group met outside the Kitchener courthouse. They posters and wore T-shirts that made references to police brutality.
“It’s about raising awareness. This family has been going through this for years,” said Michelle Hayes, the girlfriend of Mike Baker, Beau’s brother.
“It’s a hard fight,” she said, as she made posters before the rally started.
Beau’s brother, Mike, said waiting on an inquest is a painful process.
“It has left us all in the dark,” he said. “The ripple effects are still big for us.”
Mike credits his mother for being a “fighter” and speaking publicly about his brother’s death.
“It was one bad night and it’s over. A life gone for no reason,” he said.
Mike said his brother was shot at seven times.
“It give me chills every time I think about it,” he said.