A jury is recommending changes to the firearms licensing system after a four-day inquest into the death of Angus Mitchell.
RCMP in Maple Ridge shot Mitchell on May 30, 2012 after he allegedly shot and killed two people in a Burnaby sushi restaurant three days earlier.
More than a year later, the B.C. Coroners Service held an inquest into Mitchell’s death, and last month a jury declared his death a homicide. Homicide refers to the legal definition, “the killing of one human being by another human being,” and in this case it was death by police shooting.
Along with a verdict, the jury submitted several recommendations to the Coroners Service, including amending the Mental Health Act, changing the way information is shared between police departments in B.C. and enacting a stricter policy for people seeking a firearms licence.
According to the verdict, the jury has recommended the Minister of Health amend the Mental Health Act to require doctors to report assessment outcomes on individuals arrested by “police under Section 28 of the (Mental Health Act) where a firearm is involved” to the appropriate police agency.
The jury also recommended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. ensure doctors making these assessments “make all efforts to contact next of kin or close friends” in order to better understand the individual’s mental status.
A recommendation was also made to conduct a study into the possibility of families requesting psychiatric assessments for a family member they believe may have a mental illness – even if the person is resistant to the assessment.
Furthermore, the jury recommended the Chief Firearms Officer for B.C. require all applications or renewals for a firearms licence include consent to release medical information, that MSP and PharmaNet records be reviewed prior to issuing the licence and that all firearms licence renewals be suspended for 30 days if the individual was arrested under Section 28 of the Mental Health Act.
The jury recommended that during the 30-day suspension, the individual must surrender all firearms.
The jury also recommended the RCMP and municipal police departments improve the accuracy and sharing of information through the Police Records Information Management Environment.
It is now the responsibility of the B.C. Coroners Service to pass on these recommendations to the appropriate agencies.
