Video showing Rodney Levi being shot by RCMP evokes gasps and sobs from family

A 37-second video showing Rodney Levi being tasered then shot, then falling down, was shown today at the coroner's inquest into his death on June 12, 2020.

About 25 people in attendance had been cautioned about what they were going to see and several chose to leave the room, including Levi's 72-year-old mother, Mary Ann Francis.

Among those who stayed, the sight of Levi falling down, preceded by two muffled sounds of gunshots, elicited gasps and sobs from the family's side of the inquest room.

Rodney's sister, Linda Levi rushed out, sobbing.

The coroner then called a short recess.

Daniel Bell said he had driven to the home of Pastor Brodie MacLeod because he'd been invited there by MacLeod's son.

By the time he got near the house, he received a text telling him not to come in but to park next door at the Boom Road Pentecostal Church.

He said the pastor's wife came out and said someone in the house had knives and she had called the police.

The video had a stunning impact on people in the room, many of them members of Metepenagiag First Nation - about a dozen of them, wearing orange shirts.

The inquest is sitting on Truth and Reconciliation because the family had expressed a preference for taking Friday off, to mark Treaty Day, coroner John Evans had explained at the outset. 

Other witnesses

Another witness at the inquest on Thursday, Draven Augustine, 22, said he was the one who had driven Levi to the pastor's house at Levi's request. 

The young man said that Rodney was "a good friend of mine" and he had to pause several times during his questioning to compose himself. 

Augustine recalled Levi behaving as if he were depressed but struggled to articulate why he got that impression.

He said he and Levi had been having an uneventful visit at the pastor's and that the two had been invited to stay for supper. 

Augustine said he'd been playing "hockey with the boys" and that everybody had got their plates of Bar-B-Que.

Then, he said, the pastor's sons came running out to say that Levi had a knife.

Augustine said he was there when the police officer started doing CPR on Levi.

He was later pronounced dead at the Miramichi hospital.

The shooting had been investigated by an outside agency from Quebec, which released its report to New Brunswick Public Prosecutions Services last December. 

They then released a legal opinion, saying that no criminal charges would be laid against the police because the evidence showed that they were acting to protect themselves and other civilians at the residence.

Earlier Thursday, the inquest heard from Steven Ward, who made an impassioned plea for more mental health support in the communities of Metepenagiag and Eel Ground, where he says too many people are struggling with dependencies on alcohol, prescription pills and crystal methamphetamine.

Ward describes himself as a recovered alcoholic who cares deeply about his job as an addictions counsellor.

He said there's not enough funding and not enough people to meet the need. Ward says he's been working with about 40 to 50 people and their needs extend beyond the regular workday.

'A broken people'

Ward said he grew up with Levi in Metepenagiag.  

"We were like brothers," he said. 

Ward later left his community to work in Calgary and he said during the 21 years he was away, he realized how hard life had been growing up in Metepenagiag. 

"Employment is hard. Housing is hard. It's a sad way to grow up," he said. 

Ward says people are still hurting and suffering from systemic racism.

"We're a broken people," he said. "We're hurt from a long time ago."

Ward said an ongoing problem that contributes to poor mental health is the scarcity of good employment.

"The way we grew up and what little opportunity we have in Red Bank … We tend to step all over each other to get a job and keep it," he said to reporters outside the inquest room.

"It's a dead end street when you're left to live on the reserve."

Ward was also asked what could be done to prevent future deaths like Rodney's.

He said he would like to see his community adopt a grassroots approach to treating mental health by training elders and others to provide support.  

Relationship with police

He also says police need a better understanding of the communities they patrol and should want to take cultural training.

He told the inquest that one time 12 officers responded to a call at his cousin's house, with guns drawn.

"When they did a wellness check on my cousin, it's hard to see that many guns come out for a little girl.  That type of stuff is still going on, on the reserves. There's seven or eight cruisers every time there's something to do with mental health."

Ward said he saw Levi several times on June 12, 2020, even up to a few hours before he was shot. 

When a juror asked Ward if he thought Levi had been high or stoned, Ward said he didn't think so.

"He was capable of talking and walking," said Ward.