Five years before he died in a gunfire altercation with police this month, Zoltan Hyacinth narrowly escaped a bullet fired from a Toronto police constable’s gun.
An October 2007
violent struggle between Hyacinth and a police officer who instructed
his partner — if necessary — to shoot the teenager from Trinidad would
spark a civil lawsuit in which Hyacinth alleged he was the victim of
excessive, malicious use of force and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
The incident would have a grave effect on both their lives.
For Ariyeh Krieger, a
rookie constable, it brought on post-traumatic stress disorder, in turn
leading to a temporary dismissal from the Toronto police force.
For Hyacinth, it sparked a morbid conviction.
“Mr. Hyacinth believed
from that day forward that he was a marked man and that he would one
day die in an altercation with police officers,” Alonzo Abbey,
Hyacinth’s lawyer, said in a statement Saturday.
Sporting
grey hoodies featuring Hyacinth’s photo on the back, his family gathered
Sunday at Ogden Funeral Home to remember the 23-year-old who aspired to
one day become a professional cook.
Hyacinth was fatally shot in a Burger King drive-through on March 17, following what the province’s Special Investigations Unit has deemed an interaction with police.
Police had been
monitoring Hyacinth for a suspected connection to a recent violent
robbery. SIU investigators are now probing the death.
“Zoltan loved life and
we loved him. And he will be dearly missed,” said his weeping mother on
Sunday, describing the days since her son’s death as a “living
nightmare.”
“It is my hope that
everything surrounding Zoltan’s death will be transparent to us so that
we can come to terms with our terrible loss,” she said.
The details of Hyacinth’s death have not been revealed by police or the SIU.
Abbey claims Hyacinth
was shot while an officer struggled to remove him from the driver’s
seat, and that his female passenger was charged with possession of the
firearm that killed him, though that has not been confirmed by police.
Abbey, also a
long-time mentor to Hyacinth, represented him in the civil lawsuit the
young man launched in 2009, which was settled out of court under terms
subject to a confidentiality agreement.
The suit stemmed from
his altercation with police on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007, near Yorkdale
mall. Hyacinth had been leaving the mall with his cousin and a friend
when they passed two paid-duty cops.
Krieger, a Toronto
police officer who had completed five months as a probationary
constable, saw what he believed was a gun hidden in Hyacinth’s right
pants pocket, according to his statement of defence, so he and Const.
Jeremy Samson followed the teens outside.
According to both
Hyacinth’s statement of claim and the police statement of defence,
Krieger stopped Hyacinth and did a brief search for weapons. When
Hyacinth identified himself, the officers learned he was on probation
for a robbery charge and prohibited from possessing any weapons.
Both claims say Krieger was convinced Hyacinth was concealing a weapon, so he reached for Hyacinth’s pocket.
In the defence statement, Krieger claimed he latched onto a gun as he did so. A struggle ensued.
“When the defendant
Krieger felt that he was losing the struggle for the gun, he told the
defendant Samson to unholster his gun and, if necessary, shoot
(Hyacinth),” says the statement of defence.
“Don’t shoot me,”
Hyacinth said, according to court documents filed for his lawsuit, while
his cousin pleaded: “Please don’t shoot my cousin.”
Both claims say Samson shot and missed.
Hyacinth, “terrified
and fearing for his life,” fled on foot, with the officers running
behind him, according to his statement of claim.
The teenager was
arrested at his home that night and was charged with carrying a
concealed weapon, assaulting a police officer and breaching a youth
probation order.
All of the charges were ultimately withdrawn.
For Krieger, the fight
with Hyacinth “triggered an acute stress reaction which was not
immediately apparent to him,” according to a ruling made by the
province’s Human Rights Tribunal.
Krieger appealed to
the tribunal after Toronto police found him “unfit for duty,” following
another altercation that occurred just five weeks later.
According to the
tribunal’s decision report, Krieger harmed an intoxicated man inside a
McDonald’s restaurant, forcing him outside, holding him in a headlock,
and knocking his head on the doorframe of a cab as a crowd of appalled
patrons and staff members looked on. The incident ultimately led to his
dismissal.
Krieger appealed to the human rights tribunal, saying he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that had resulted from the incident with Hyacinth.
In a June 2010 decision,
the tribunal found that Krieger had been discriminated against based on
disability, and ordered his reinstatement with the force.
Hyacinth’s funeral is Tuesday.
With files from Touria Izri
