The jury at a coroners inquest into the 2018 death of a man at the Departure Bay ferry terminal says more officers trained in emergency response should be available at incidents involving armed suspects.
Jer Wood died on May 8, 2018, after his car was surrounded by police vehicles at the Nanaimo terminal after he drove off the ferry. Wood, a suspect in a violent Penticton carjacking and non-fatal shooting in the Vernon area, shot himself at the same time as two officers shot at him.
The jury noted that the ERT team on site had to be supplemented by plainclothes officers untrained in emergency-response tactics because not enough ERT members were available to respond.
The jury is recommending expediting setting up regional full-time ERT teams, including on Vancouver Island, and to supplement the teams with ERT-trained part-time members.
It also recommended having advanced-care paramedics deployed instead of primary-care paramedics in cases where there is a possibility a suspect is armed.
In Wood’s case, his transport to the hospital was delayed because only a primary-care paramedic was sent to the scene before the incident and advanced-care paramedics were requested prior to transport, the jury said.
The jury found that Wood, who had changed his name from Jerry Robert Smallwood, died by suicide.
He raised his pistol as he sat in a vehicle at the terminal and shot himself in the head, just as a pair of officers fired several times at his chest when they saw him raise the gun.
The inquest heard that his immediate cause of death was ruled to be multiple gunshot wounds.
The inquest began Nov. 12, with Wood’s mother detailing how a work-related back injury led him to drug addiction after he was taken off painkillers.
Sharon Smallwood said she believes her son changed his name to protect his family from knowing about his addiction issues.
She said the family didn’t find out about the name change until his body was released to the funeral home.
His girlfriend, Danielle Frost, testified that Wood told her the day before he died that he had shot someone, and that police would have to shoot him because he was determined not to go to jail.
The person he shot was one of the people who sold him illicit drugs, his mother said.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Independent Investigations Officer, a civilian-led police-watchdog agency, cleared police of any wrongdoing in Wood’s death.
Smallwood said that her son is greatly missed, and that his loved ones wish they could go back “and change the outcome of his actions.”
