A Chatham-Kent OPP officer accused of manslaughter has wrapped up his testimony in a Chatham courtroom.
Constable Sean O'Rourke, who is on trial for the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Nicholas Grieves on Highway 401 near Ridgetown on July 7, 2021, faced cross-examination by the Crown on Friday.
Crown Attorney Jason Nicol started his line of questioning by asking Constable O'Rourke about some of his notes from his shift on the evening of the incident.
Nicol also asked about O'Rourke's experience with using weapons on the job, to which O'Rourke testified that he has fired his gun operationally "maybe 10-15 times... not at people" adding that he has also never had an unintended discharge of a weapon prior to the incident in question.
Nicol followed that up by taking O'Rourke through some of the details of the shift on the night of the shooting, stopping at times to get O'Rourke to confirm specifics such as how fast the suspect vehicle was travelling on Highway 401 when O'Rourke first saw it.
During the cross-examination, O'Rourke testified again that he suspected the driver of the vehicle, later identified as Nicholas Grieves, was impaired by drugs based on the "crazed" look in Grieves' eyes.
When asked about why he took his gun out of its holster as he approached the suspect vehicle, O'Rourke testified that he feared the possibility of serious harm or death based on the totality of the circumstances.
He also noted that he had decided before he got out of his police vehicle that this was going to be a high-risk arrest and because of that, he had already made up his mind that he was going to draw his weapon.
O'Rourke testified that he yelled out commands to the occupants of the suspect vehicle as he approached it with his weapon drawn, maintaining through the cross-examination that, to his recollection, his finger was on the "slide" of the gun and never the trigger the whole time he was pointing it toward the driver.
O'Rourke also testified that as he approached the suspect vehicle on the passenger side, he stumbled on something in the grassy median of the highway where the vehicle was stopped before he fell into the passenger side window, which was open at the time.
He testified that his stumbling was one continuous motion and that he didn't have time to move his arms out of the way, so he went hands first into the car all the way up to his shoulders.
When questioned about the position of his finger on his firearm at the time he stumbled, O'Rourke maintained that his finger was always on the "slide" as he fell forward, still pointing the weapon at Grieves.
O'Rourke further testified that his gun went off as he was fighting feverishly to pull himself out of the car, noting that the weapon must have been very close to the face of the woman sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle.
When pressed on how his gun discharged, O'Rourke said that there is only a "very slim" possibility that a mechanical issue caused the gun to fire, but a "very real" possibility that his finger pulled the trigger -- even though he was adamant that he has no memory of his finger pressing the trigger and does not know for certain how it went off.
Crown Attorney Nicol wrapped up his cross-examination by making several suggestions to O'Rourke including that there was no reason the officer should have drawn his weapon and pointed it in the first place, to which O'Rourke said he completely disagreed.
The Crown also suggested that when the gun went off, O’Rourke was standing outside the car with the gun close to, but outside of, the passenger side window with his finger on the trigger. The Crown further suggested that O’Rourke’s account of stumbling into the vehicle is a fabricated story meant to cover up O’Rourke’s own carelessness.
Again, O'Rourke noted firmly that he completely disagreed with those suggestions.
The Crown wrapped up its cross-examination with some questions about the events that followed the shooting, including O'Rourke and another officer performing CPR on Grieves.
O'Rourke was then released from the stand and the court went into recess for the weekend.
The case will resume on Tuesday.