One of the police officers who took down Leslie Hegedus on July 15, 2020 told a coroner’s inquest April 23 about the moments surrounding the “barrage of gunfire” that rang out on Indian Point Road, Haliburton.
OPP officer Ezra Zugehoer recalled how he responded to the scene and was walking up the long driveway to Hegedus’ house when he noticed a dark shape in the woods; and what looked like shoulders and a hat. He said the shape within a tree stump moved. He called out a police challenge; “police. Don’t move. Show me your hands,” a number of times.
OPP officer Craig Baril was off to the right also moving up the roadway.
He said that is when he heard “a blast” that sounded like a “cannon.”
He added he was “100 per cent certain those shots were directed at me.”
Zugehoer said he felt he and Baril were in a “bad ambush position” and had no choice but to “engage and stop the threat.”
He added he directed his point of aim at the stump to stop the threat.
He started shooting, as did Baril.
Moving towards Hegedus, at one point, Baril said, “come to me, I’ve got him here.”
Asked by inquest counsel, Kim Motyl, about OPP policies around the use of deadly force, Zugehoer said it is used when “serious bodily harm or death is imminent to yourself or another individual.
“I feared for my life at that point, 100 per cent fear for my life and my partner’s life.” He added had he not responded, he would have been killed.
He detailed that after Hegedus was shot, they were unable to get through on the police radio for a time. They then got through to relay the suspect was down and they would need EMS.
Motyl asked if he thought they could have done anything differently.
He replied, “I don’t think anything different could have been done that day.” He added there was “nothing amiss” and he was proud to be part of the decisions made that day.
Zugehoer did outline issues around communications on the day, but said OPP were working on improvements. Motyl and a jury member asked several questions around that, suggesting it may form part of the juror’s recommendations. There was also discussion of Baril having to change uniform at the scene.
Baril also testified Tuesday afternoon. He spoke of an “eerie feeling” as they arrived on scene. He feared for both of their lives as he closed the distance between him and Hegedus to 14 metres, from 28 metres, to eliminate the shooting threat. The inquest heard Zugehoer fired nine rounds and Baril 17.
It only takes one bad egg
Meanwhile, Sgt. John Spence, who was also fired upon, testified April 22, he had been involved in past situations requiring OPP Emergency Response Teams and, “had been able to handle a lot of stuff coming through… up to now.”
Spence said within a couple of days, “I had changed… my interactions with the public, my interactions with my co-workers, and my constables. I wasn’t the same. I wasn’t as calm and objective as I used to be.”
He said he got into policing to help people “but when they… in this situation, try to kill you, it really brought it home.”
He said he was close to retirement at the time of the incident, and was thinking about his wife and children. He added, “I almost didn’t make it. So, that changed me. I was more hypervigilant at work. I continued to work for a year after that.”
He said coming up to the one-year anniversary of the shooting, he was told he would have to work that day, July 15, 2021. He had wanted that particular day off but was told he could not. However, he said he got a call from a psychologist telling him to go home, “so I believe that was a good idea.”
Ever since, he said he had been going through treatment. He added he can talk about the incident now but that was not always the case. “And that’s why I avoided meeting people in grocery stores or going to the office.
“But in this situation, I felt compelled to testify today… for people to understand that we did the best that we could, as far as I’m concerned, with what we had.”
Motyl commented it must be hard to avoid talking about such an incident, particularly in a small town. She said she imagined it had had an impact on the community, too.
Spence said the Highlands is “usually a great, great place to live. You know, 99.8 per cent of the population are good people, hard-working people, and it only takes one bad egg.”
