A coroner’s inquest into the death of 20-year-old Rhett Mutch Tuesday heard testimony from the four officers who were inside the house when the Victoria man was shot.
Mutch was shot in the neck by a police officer and died during an incident in his mother?s Dallas Road home in November 2014.
READ MORE: Coroner?s inquest into fatal police shooting begins
On Tuesday, the four officers were questioned by Mutch’s mother, Marney. The officers have never spoken publicly and said they had not even spoken to each other about the incident.
At times, the testimony was conflicting, but all the officers agreed they only fired shots after Mutch came running at the two armed officers with a steak knife.
One of the officers had a Remington shotgun that fired beanbags while the other had a pistol.
Those officers and the one trying to negotiate with Mutch to drop the knife all broke down on the stand. The two armed officers also said they had to take time off work to get counselling.
However, questions still remain about why the officers were in the house in the first place and were pointing guns at a man with a history of psychological problems and who wanted to take his own life.
Mutch’s mother Marney said Mutch was calm and sitting on the couch when police arrived. She addd she would like to know the truth but everybody has a different truth.
“I would like to be able to put the pieces together and to have them fit for me so that I can…I can be at peace,” Marney said.
Marney also said she was lonely and misses Mutch
“A lot of anger too sometimes. you know, it’s just everything. All I can feel is how much I just see, so much injustice. I’ll be interested to see how I feel toward the end of this but right now I think he got a raw deal.”
During the first day of the inquest, several witnesses, including the 911 call taker who answered the call from Marney the police dispatcher involved in the case and the police sergeant in charge at the scene testified.
Alexa Huffman
