Firefighters and police officers testifying Thursday at a public hearing gave differing accounts over whether a fire had been extinguished before an officer fatally shot a woman who had locked herself inside an apartment unit.
The first responders testified on the fourth day of a three-week public hearing into the death of Lisa Rauch to determine if then Const. Ron Kirkwood, now a VicPD sergeant, committed misconduct under the Police Act. Kirkwood faces allegations of abuse of authority in relation to firing an ARWEN gun, considered a “less lethal” option than a firearm, at Rauch and neglect of duty in connection with his lack of documentation of the fatal shooting.
Rauch, 43, had locked herself inside a unit in a Pandora Avenue supportive housing unit on Christmas Day 2019.
She was hit in the back of the head with three hard, plastic projectiles from an ARWEN gun fired by Kirkwood. She died four days later from blunt-force head injuries after being removed from life support.
Rauch had been taking crystal methamphetamine, appeared to be experiencing psychosis, had threatened the tenant of the unit with a knife and was alone in the unit, police responding to a 911 call were told.
Officers have testified that the situation became dangerous to others in the building when smoke was seen coming from the window of the unit, and there was an urgent need to remove Rauch from the suite to extinguish the fire.
After spending more than an hour waiting out Rauch in the hopes she would come out of the unit on her own, officers changed their approach because of the fire. They opened the door and crossed the threshold into the suite, with firefighters directly behind them to extinguish the fire.
Adjudicator Wally Oppal, a retired judge who is presiding over the hearing, has heard that officers were met with thick smoke that limited their view into the unit to only a few feet.
Firefighter Thomas Falkiner testified he was on the hose spraying water into the unit from behind a police officer holding a shield. He estimated the fire was about one foot by one foot, with flames reaching up about a foot.
He extinguished the fire “basically immediately,” Falkiner told the public hearing.
He said he heard shots fired shortly after he put the fire out.
“I was in the act of backing away at that point when I heard the shots,” Falkiner said. He had been instructed to back out when the fire was extinguished, he said.
Fire captain Richard Sulsbury testified he couldn’t remember if water was sprayed before the shots or if they happened at the same time, because “it all happened so quickly.” He estimated Falkiner was spraying water for 30 seconds or less.
“The shots came while we’re still in a crouch. Basically, they shot over Tom’s head, which they didn’t tell us they were going to do, so it kind of caught us off guard,” Bradley Hickford, counsel for the public hearing, said, reading from a statement Sulsbury gave after the incident.
Const. Steven Reichert, who was standing directly behind Kirkwood at the time of the shooting, testified he continued to see flames after firefighters backed out and had stopped dousing the fire.
Const. Kyle Roy, who was carrying a large shield and was positioned at the front of the group of officers and firefighters, said after a second volley of water, he saw the fire reduced but not completely put out.
“Soon after that the ARWEN is deployed,” he said.
Rauch’s father believes she would be alive if Kirkwood had waited a minute for smoke to clear before firing.
“As soon as the firefighters are backing out, he shot,” Ron Rauch said. “It was less than a minute. If he waits, she’s alive.”
CCTV footage shown earlier during the public hearing showed less than a minute elapsed between firefighters spraying the fire and officers removing Rauch from the room.
The public hearing continues April 29.
