Inquest into death of Sask. man shot by police near Belle Plaine in 2022 begins

A coroner's inquest into the death of 26-year-old Ryan Booker, who was fatally shot by police near Belle Plaine, Sask., started Monday.

Booker died on Highway 1 after a standoff with police on July 17, 2022.

At the time, RCMP said they received a report of a man was sitting in his car, uttering threats. The man drove from the Superstore parking lot in Moose Jaw and pulled over near Belle Plaine, RCMP said.

After a six-hour standoff involving SWAT and RCMP's Critical Incident Response Team, police shot him. RCMP said the man had pointed his gun at officers and did not comply with demands.

Inquests like this are not criminal proceedings and do not result in criminal charges. Juries are asked to determine the facts of the death and make recommendations to help prevent similar incidents in the future.

Coroner Aaron Fox selected six jurors who will participate over what's expected to be five days of proceedings.

Kaitlyn Hofer, who had been in a six-year relationship with Booker, testified Monday that he had been diagnosed with depression shortly before they met and was taking medication for it until he stopped "a year and a bit" before he was killed.

"I hadn't noticed a change," Hofer said.

She said their relationship was "really good" up to the last six weeks before Booker died. He had been quietly struggling with alcohol and substance abuse, she said.

Hofer said there was a day she noticed some money had been missing and decided to confront Booker about it.

"He ended up telling me the truth — it was for drugs," she said.

Shortly after, the couple came to a mutual decision that Booker would live at their camper in Belle Plaine, 15 minutes from their home in Moose Jaw, until he was sober. 

Booker lived there for about a month before his death, returning home a few times.

Hofer said she would often put their kids to sleep at night before going to the camper to check in on him. She said Booker wanted to get better.

"I would ask if he was ready," Hofer said. "'Just not yet' was always his answer."

Details of the day

On the morning of July 16, Hofer woke up to "a lot of messages" from Booker.

She had planned to go to Country Thunder in Craven that weekend. Hofer said Booker had been back and forth about her going, but ultimately did not want her to go.

"He threatened to overdose on Xanax," Hofer said.

In a panic, she called Booker's mother Beth to accompany her to their house in Moose Jaw to check up on him.

They arrived and looked through a window to see Booker "passed out" on the couch.

"I was banging on the window to wake him up and he wouldn't wake up," Hofer said.

She ended up climbing through the back window to get into the house.

"He barely woke up," Hofer said, adding that Booker had been high at the time.

She decided to let him sleep it off, as she had many nights. 

Later that day, Hofer was at Country Thunder with her friends when she received an angry phone call from Booker.

"He said he would kill me and then he would kill himself too," she said.

It was the only time Booker had ever threatened her throughout their entire relationship, Hofer said, adding that he has only ever made threats to harm himself.

Moments later, she received a call from his mother Beth warning her that Booker had just stopped by her house to grab a gun and was heading to a SuperStore in Moose Jaw. Hofer had parked her car at that SuperStore earlier to catch the shuttle.

Police were already aware of the situation and advised her to cut all communication with Booker. The shuttle bus was also rerouted to another location for her safety.

Beth testified that she only found out about Booker's struggles shortly before he was killed.

"I tried to stop him but I couldn't," Beth said. "They were having problems and he was scared he wouldn't get to see the kids."

After Booker left with the gun, Beth called his father to go down to Belle Plaine to try to defuse the situation.

"He just didn't understand how much he was loved," Beth said.

Barry Nosal, Booker's father, testified that he wasn't ever aware that his son was struggling with addictions or mental health.

Nosal said he had also stopped by with Beth and Hofer to check on his son earlier in the day. He said the three of them had spent more than an hour trying to wake Booker up before deciding to let him sleep it off. Nosal said he decided to take home the gun that was in Booker's house just to be safe.

"I just thought he partied too hard," he said. "I was going to talk to him Monday about his drug and relationship issues."

Nosal said he got a call from his son the night before he was killed. Booker was upset and looking for his gun.

He said his son has always been into guns and didn't think much about the phone call until Beth called him. 

"He had been hunting since he was 12 years old," Nosal said.

Once he heard about what was going on, Nosal immediately made his way down to Belle Plaine.

"There were tons of cars down Highway 1," he said.

Nosal said he drove as close as he could to the nearest police car, identified himself as Booker's father and gave an officer his number. He said he was told he could not speak to his son and to wait in town. 

About two hours later, he started to see cars moving and again asked the officer if he could speak to his son. The officer declined.

"About a half an hour later I got a text asking where I was," Nosal said.

A couple minutes later two police officers showed up and let him know his son had been killed, he said.

Nosal said he knows things would have been different if he could have talked to his son.

"I don't know why they didn't let me take that opportunity," he said.

Moose Jaw police and RCMP are expected to testify Tuesday.