HOUSTON, B.C. - The fatal shooting of a Houston, B.C. man by an RCMP officer hasn't significantly hurt the relationship between the community and the RCMP, an RCMP spokesman said Friday.
Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre described the shooting of Ian Bush by Const. Paul Koester as a horrible tragedy that both Koester and the Bush family will have to live with for the rest of their lives.
"I don't get the feeling that this town is ready to revolt or that it's ready to explode,'' Lemaitre said.
"Certainly that's not the case. I think people have enough humanity to understand the sadness of everyone involved here.''
He said the RCMP believe it is important, both for the RCMP and for the community, that Koester's evidence was heard at the inquest into Bush's death.
"It's going to be black and white. You're going to have people who will believe Const. Koester's testimony and you will have people who don't,'' he said.
"Our hope with this coroner's inquest was for everybody to have an opportunity to hear both sides. ''
Koester testified he was fighting for his life when he shot Bush in an interview room at the RCMP detachment Oct. 29, 2005.
Bush, 22, was arrested after he twice gave Koester a false name while he was outside the local hockey arena, carrying an open beer."
The New Westminster, B.C., police investigated the shooting and concluded Koester shouldn't be charged.
Amid a public outcry over the decision, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said Koester was acting in self-defence.
The inquest has been told that Koester's body remained in the room where he was shot for two and a half days.
"That is not unreasonable,'' Lemaitre said. ''It's expected in a crime scene investigation.''
He said the police have not found it more difficult to do their job in the mill town of 4,000 in the aftermath of the shooting.
"The odd time if they're going into a situation where people have been consuming liquor it's to be expected that you'll get one or two comments like `oh my God what are you going to do, shoot me.?' Again, that's to be expected.''
Cpl. Doug Stone, who represents the RCMP's Members Employees Assistance Program, told the inquest he spent several hours with Koester after the shooting.
"He was an emotional wreck,'' Stone said.
He said he had to repeat things many times because Koester was unresponsive.
Together with a woman from victims' assistance, who testified along the same lines Thursday, he said they eventually got him to go to bed and "tucked him in.''
