Ian Bush
Twenty-two year old Ian Bush was a child that would make any parent proud. He helped in anyway he could, made people laugh, was patient, gentle, intelligent, artistic, a peace maker who found solutions to problems and was never to cool to say I love you in public.
However, on October 29th, 2005, Ian's life came to an abrupt and unwarranted end when he was unjustly shot and killed by a member of the Houston RCMP.
What Happened
The call came in the middle of the night, Ian was dead but no-one could tell them how or why.When the RCMP did tell their version the next day, they stated that Ian was arrested and then released at which point, their son turned and attacked Constable Koester and was consequently shot in the back of the head and killed.
The RCMP had no witnesses, no video surveillance to back up their account and nothing other than one officers word to base their investigation on.
The Outcome
It would take five and a half long months before the police investigation of one of their own was finished.
What the family learned was confusing and disheartening and but most importantly, no one, not even Constable Koester could explain how it would have been possible for him to reach behind and above himself to first, hit Ian three times with his gun before deciding to shoot him.
The RCMP investigation was controversial and that was even proved when blood-spatter expert, Joe Slemko, from the Edmonton City Police testified that his findings directly contradicted the RCMP's conclusions.
Yet, sadly the inquest cleared Koester of any wrong doing.
Today, there are still so many missing pieces, not one bit of justice has been served and Ian's family has nowhere left to turn. However, one thing is for sure, after the investigation and the inquest it is painfully apparent that Canadians need to join together and stop this horrible injustice from happening again. Stop police investigating police, pass laws that there should be tamper proof video and audio in police detachments, pass legislation that officers should never be alone and unattended with someone in their custody and that every family who is put in this dreadful situation in the future has a lawyer representing them at every inquest.
What You Can Do
Call on the Government of Canada to adopt Bill C-472 to create a Civilian Investigation Service and end the practice of police investigating police.
|
|
Sign our Petition
Write an Email
Write a Letter
Spread the WordAttention BC Residents
It is very important that the Government of British Columbia hears from us as well. The BC Government is currently working on a new system of police investigation for our province. We believe that it is of utmost importance that this new system be modeled after a completely civilian force, as it is in Ontario, rather than a civilian-led based force, as in Alberta.
W5 Investigates
Spread the Word
Subscribe to News
Did you know...
|
Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan all have independent civilian review boards to remove any bias in internal police investigations when someone is seriously hurt or killed while in custody.