Greg Matters

[A_Britishcolumbian]

lorraine matters, greg's mother gives an interview here. i believe she is just about 70 years old, about 5'4", maybe 130lbs, somewhat physically crippled with limited range of motion in her neck, back and limbs, but her mind is sharp and quick and she seems to be a genuine, caring mother and good person from what i know.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/arti ... 9-t-you-39

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

PETER JAMES
CITIZEN STAFF
[email protected]

'You killed my son, didn't you?'

Lorraine Matters was detained in a room at the Prince George RCMP station a year ago when her heart was broken.

Hours earlier Lorraine had been forcibly removed from her family’s property by police who had surrounded the premises with the intention of arresting her son Greg Matters, a retired member of the Canadian Armed Forces who was dealing with

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When a woman Lorraine described as a mediator walked into the room were she was being held, Lorraine knew immediately something had gone horribly wrong.

“She came to the door and I said, ‘You killed my son, didn’t you?’” Lorraine said Tuesday, fighting back tears. “She shook her head. I said, ‘He’s dead,’ she shook her head yes.”

That’s how Lorraine found out that Greg had been shot by a member of the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) after he approached officers with a hatchet in his hand outside a small one-room cabin on a family-owned lot beside Lorraine’s home.

The provincial Independent Investigations

Office examined the circumstances and determined no charges should be laid against the police officers involved in the shooting.

A year later, Lorraine is still coming to grips with the death of her son and how what started as a family dispute between Greg and his brother Trevor escalated into a fatal police incident.

“We all miss Greg,” she said. “A piece of my heart is gone and it can never be filled again.”

Although the event that put things in motion one year ago was an altercation between Greg and his brother Trevor, some of the underlying factors had been at work for years.

Greg’s sister Tracey said her brother’s personality changed shortly after he joined the military in 1994 but it wasn’t until years later the family began to

see the symptoms they would later identify as

PTSD.

Tracey, who lives in Australia, remembers Greg being very reclusive, even around family and friends. One time when she came to visit she found her brother in a room in the basement lying in a fetal position, crying.

“It just took my breath away,” she said.

Greg’s fear of the police stemmed from an incident on the East Coast when a friend’s home was broken into and Greg never felt justice was served. He wrote letters of complaint, some very strongly worded, which caught the eye of investigators.

At least one of those letters may have gone too far and got Greg in trouble with the law

“He wrote a letter on the computer and pushed send, which he shouldn’t have, he was frustrated at the time,” Lorraine said. “Then they came and

arrested Greg.”

After that, Greg felt the police were out to get him and that he was being followed. Lorraine remembers getting a call from a panicked Greg at the movie theatre, saying that he was worried the police were after him. She drove from her Pineview home downtown to ensure his safety.

Despite that lack of trust in authority, Greg was the one who called the police to report the incident with his brother in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 2012.

Greg was again in contact with RCMP about the incident later that morning and, according to Lorraine, agreed to provide a statement to police about what happened. He was unable to deliver it in person due to car problems, but she said police officers came to the home to pick it up.

That evening, Lorraine said police officers began to ask Greg to come down the driveway to the street, perhaps with the intention of arresting him.

“At one point he came in and said, ‘Mom, I’m too scared, I’m too scared to walk down to the road,’” Lorraine said. “I got on the phone and told them, ‘Please, Greg has post-traumatic stress, please don’t do this to him.’”

Greg didn’t leave the house that night and police maintained a presence in the neighbourhood. Early in the afternoon on the following day, Sept. 10, Greg decided to leave his mother’s home and head to a neighbouring property where his grandparents used to live. He went to a one-room cabin that he had been renovating for use as a study room.

Later that afternoon, with police now surrounding the property, Lorraine asked permission from one of the officers to go visit Greg and check on his well-being. Believing she had been given the green light, Lorraine drove next door and turned to go down the driveway but was immediately stopped by an officer in full ERT tactical outfit with helmet, face shield, body armour and rifle.

“I just said to him, ‘My God, what are you doing? You look ridiculous.’ And that really got him angry when I told him he looked ridiculous,” Lorraine said.

Her interaction with the officer quickly escalated as he asked her to put her hands on the hood of her car, something she said she couldn’t do because of neck and arm injuries. Lorraine said the officer then grabbed her and she fell to the ground where she was kneed in the chest.

“I was begging for my son’s life then because I thought if they’re doing this to me, what are they going to do to Greg,” she said. “I already knew that they were

going to hurt my son.”

Lorraine was taken to the police station where she was held on suspicion of assault, but no charges were ever filed.

Despite all the challenges Greg faced as a result of PTSD, both Lorraine and Tracey feel he was making great strides thanks to the treatment his was receiving prior to his death. He was becoming more active in the community - he had plans to volunteer with hospice and wanted to be involved with 4-H - and was talking about starting a family of his own.

“He would have made a full recovery,” Tracey said. “With full support he was becoming a model citizen.”

[KL3-Something]

Your title of your new thread is misleading at best. But is more like a deliberate exaggerated lie in an attempt to garner support from your like-minded individuals.

This guy was obviously mentally ill due to PTSD.

He found himself in trouble with the law over an email his own mother says he should not have sent. Likely one that contained threats that resulted in his being investigated and arrested.

His mental illness had him paranoid with nothing in the article to support his paranoia.

He got into an altercation that resulted in an ERT call out.

His mother went to the scene thinking she had a "green light" to do so. She obviously did not (because contact from family in those situations are always done by phone).

She was told by an officer at the scene perimeter that she was not allowed to enter. She apparently took exception to that and, as a result, was arrested.

The situation resulted in her mentally ill son being killed by police (Tragic? Yes.).

The incident was investigated by the Independent Investigations Office (who I am very happy now exists). The IIO found that there were no grounds to suggest that a police officer "may have committed a criminal offence" (their threshold for forwarding a Report to Crown Counsel).

A very tragic situation, Yes. But again, where do you get the "Crime" part from?

[A_Britishcolumbian]

so lets say for the sake of this thread, that the topic is not misleading as 'i' saw the rcmp handle mrs. matters and in doing so realize that a crime was committed.

[CorkSoaker]

so lets say for the sake of this thread, that the topic is not misleading as 'i' saw the rcmp handle mrs. matters and in doing so realize that a crime was committed.

Okay, so based off of what "you" saw what is it that "you" did?

[Nebula]

Me thinks someone has an ulterior motive for starting this thread.

[grammafreddy]

Its still a valid question, though.

[flamingfingers]

Me thinks someone has an ulterior motive for starting this thread.

Wonder what that could be, eh?

I get soooo tired of cop bashing topics... not that it is unwarranted in certain instances but really!

[A_Britishcolumbian]

i think my motive is perfectly clear, as stated in the topic, and an example for context given nebula.
grammafreddy, i believe you can see.
i would really like to know everyone's opinion. it is a very difficult question i realize.
i have witnessed questionable conduct of rcmp members and really, especially given the circumstances, am at a loss as to what i should do.
this example provided is timely and relevant i feel.
the coroner's inquest starts october 8.

[Nebula]

Where's the relevance? Where in the first post is there an example of someone allegedly seeing a cop commit a crime?

[A_Britishcolumbian]

i'm not sure what you are missing nebula, i would assume everything said here is merely an allegation.
what i am looking for is opinions of what someone should do in 'my' situation.

[Nebula]

what i am looking for is opinions of what someone should do in 'my' situation.

If that's true, then why copy the story about the guy with PTSD in your first post?

[A_Britishcolumbian]

you have to read all the messages i guess.
'i' saw mrs. matters handled by rcmp, 'i' believe it was criminal, what should 'i' do? what would you do?

the iio was called to the scene, what 'i' witnessed was not relevant to the greg matters investigation in their opinion, and there was no iio investigation, to my knowledge, into the treatment of lorraine matters.

[KL3-Something]

So instead of beating around the bush with a news story that doesn't indicate that any "crime" was actually committed by a police officer, why don't you tell us what it is that you saw and why it is that you think it constituted a criminal act?

The IIO was investigating the incident where someone was killed by police. So if you weren't a witness to that incident there was no reason for them to take your statement. They weren't there to investigate the arrest of some person who attempted to enter the scene. If you took issue with the way she was handled by the arresting officer then you need to file a complaint. Sounds to me like it was a case of a member arresting an uncooperative person who was attempting to enter a crime scene.

NB: If someone in full ERT gear tells you to stay out of an area that the police have secured, you should leave. Without arguing. At that point it really isn't open for discussion.

[fluffy]

A good place to start would be finding out just what your options are:

http://www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx

[A_Britishcolumbian]

kl3-something, you were kind enough to present ...

"His mother went to the scene thinking she had a "green light" to do so. She obviously did not (because contact from family in those situations are always done by phone).

She was told by an officer at the scene perimeter that she was not allowed to enter. She apparently took exception to that and, as a result, was arrested."

and as well you add now...

"Sounds to me like it was a case of a member arresting an uncooperative person who was attempting to enter a crime scene.

NB: If someone in full ERT gear tells you to stay out of an area that the police have secured, you should leave. Without arguing. At that point it really isn't open for discussion."

while this does not answer my question i am very appreciative of you contributing that.

do you feel lorraine's description is of a 'legal arrest'?