HALIFAX — An independent review of the police involvement in the death of a 19-year-old man linked to an alleged mass-murder plot in Halifax says officers acted reasonably when they spoke to him by cellphone outside his home.
Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team released the finding Friday into the incident on Tiger Maple Drive in Timberlea on Feb. 12.
The police watchdog does not name the man and refers to him in the report as AP, an abbreviation for Affected Person. But information sworn in court by Halifax police alleges the offences in the case were carried out in concert with James Lee Gamble, who was found dead by police.
The four-page report published online says the body was found in an upstairs bedroom of the home more than four hours after a police officer had talked with the man by phone, and after police had heard a gunshot.
It says the man died instantly as a result of a gunshot to his head.
"That call went exactly as planned, with AP co-operating until he made the decision to end his own life," the report concludes. "Nothing the police did encouraged or assisted AP in that decision."
Police went to the home after receiving information that a man and woman were allegedly planning a mass shooting at a Halifax mall on Valentine's Day.
The report says non-uniformed officers began surveillance, but decided against an immediate approach because it was assumed the man had access to firearms.
The officers observed the man's mother and father leaving the home in two vehicles in the early evening and his mother was stopped by police on her way back home shortly after 7 p.m., the report says.
She told police her son had been diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder and had lately been acting differently and secretive, the report says. But it says she informed the officers she had never known him to be violent and believed he would co-operate if contacted by police.
The report says the father returned in his vehicle around 8:30 p.m. and told police it was unlikely his son would be involved in such a plot. He also confirmed that two rifles were in the home although his son wouldn't know where the ammunition was stored.
Both the father and mother offered to go inside and bring their son out, but the report says police rejected both offers as too risky.
An officer then called the man and made contact around 8:59 p.m. The report says the situation was explained to him and that "AP was said to be co-operative and not emotional."
He was asked to come outside and said that he would. The report says at one point AP said "Just a minute."
Around 9:05 p.m., police reported hearing a loud bang on the phone and other officers on scene heard a gunshot, the report says.
Police placed several unanswered calls to the man's cellphone before sending a remote controlled camera unit into the home's main floor. Around 1:20 a.m. on Feb. 13 officers entered the home and found the body, the report says.
"The decision to keep AP's mother and father from re-entering the home was reasonable," states the report. "Based on what AP's parents told them about AP's likely co-operation, the decision to call AP to determine if he would surrender to police was also reasonable."
John Lee Gamble, the man's father, declined comment about the report Friday.
In a television interview last month, Gamble and his wife Patricia Cody expressed frustration over the police response to their questions about how the incident was handled.
An RCMP spokesman said at the time that the family was given as much information as possible.
A childhood friend of Gamble's, Randall Steven Shepherd, and Kantha Souvannarath of Geneva, Ill., are awaiting trial on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder related to the alleged plot.
