'Devoutly religious' woman shot by police 

By Kevin Connor

The SIU arrives at the scene outside a North York home where a woman was shot once by police on Friday. (ERNEST DOROSZUK/Toronto Sun)

TORONTO - Sylvia Klibingaitis should not be dead, her lawyer said Saturday.
The North York woman was shot and killed Friday when police responded to a call for a person with a knife at a residence near Yonge St. and Cummer Ave.
Klibingaitis, 52, was shot once in the chest and died in hospital from her injuries, said the province’s Special Investigations Unit, who are now investigating the shooting.
But Howard Goldkind, a Toronto defence lawyer who represented Klibingaitis in another matter, said he’s certain there were other ways the police could have handled this incident with such a good person.
“This lady was a devoutly religious woman who volunteered at nursing homes to help elderly people,” Goldkind said. “She was upgrading her education at the U of T and she was raising a teenaged daughter. She was a good person. This is disheartening for me. She had some difficulties but a lot of people are angry she had to die this way.”
Goldkind said he knows the police have a difficult task, and doesn’t want to be seen as a cop-basher the way some of his fellow defence lawyers are sometimes characterized but he and others are upset the police didn’t use something other than deadly force on Klibingaitis.
“I can tell you there are a lot of angry people walking around,” Goldkind said. “I am very upset this lady was shot and killed by police and I wonder if they could have handled it differently.”
She may have been acting badly but a more suitable reaction could have been the use of pepper spray or Tasers, he said. “They didn’t need to use deadly force.”
Klibingaitis, 52, leaves behind a teenaged daughter, an elderly mother and siblings.
When police are involved in a incident where a civilian is injured or killed the SIU is called in to conduct and investigation.
The SIU is continuing to collect forensic evidence and is speaking with witnesses.
Once the SIU takes over a case police are not allowed to comment on it.