Don Dunphy not mentally ill, family doctor tells judicial inquiry

Don Dunphy had health problems that limited his ability to move but his family doctor is adamant that the man who was fatally shot by a RNC officer on Easter Sunday 2015 did not have mental health or anxiety problems.

"Hehad chronic pain syndrome but he didn't have depression or mental illness," Dr. Thomas McGarrytestified at the inquiry on Wednesday.

He couldn't cut wood or carry it into his home.- Thomas McGarry

Dunphy, 59, a truck driver, was badly injured in a workplace incident in 1984, when his pelviswas crushed between two vehicles.

In the years before his death, McGarry says Dunphylived with chronic pain because ofpelvic, back and heart problems.

"I was having concerns about him heating his home. He couldn't cut wood or carry it into his home,"he said.

"Dunphy had mobility issues. Bending over was difficult. He could only get his hands to about knee level."

Dunphy had a medical marijuana licence to deal with pain. He was also prescribed the painkiller Percocet, a narcotic that contains oxycodone.

A medical report written by another Eastern Health physiciansaid Dunphy had "chronic anxiety."

However, McGarry disputed that.

"He didn't have an anxiety disorder," McGarry told Justice Leo Barry.

He said the anxiety Dunphywas showing was related to medical tests and "was appropriate."

Easter Sunday shooting death

Dunphy was shot and killed in his Mitchells Brook home by Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Const. Joe Smyth on April 5, 2015.

Smyth, 38, was there as a member of then-premier Paul Davis's security detail, carrying out a risk assessment after a series of Dunphy's tweets raised red flags for communications specialist Donna Ivey.

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Smythtestifiedhe shot at Dunphyfour times in self defence after Dunphy lifted a rifle from the right side of the chair he was sitting in and pointed it at Smyth.

The RCMP investigated the police shootingand concluded no charges are warranted against Smyth.

RCMPfamily liaison

RCMP Const. John Galway was calledinto work at the police force's Holyrooddetachment on the day of the shooting. The next day he wasassigned the task of family liaison.

Commission co-counsel Kate O'Brien asked Galway if he recalled saying in an interview on Dec. 2, 2015 that he was left with the impression on April 5 of that year that Smyth had shot Dunphy in self defence.

"That right," he said."I understand now that it was a homicide investigation."

As the family liaison, Galway said it was his role to try to help the family answer any questions they had about the investigation.

RCMPmajor crime unit was in charge of the investigation. Galwaysaid that unit decided what information could be released to the Dunphy family.

Galwaymet with Don Dunphy's daughter, Meghan, 29, days after the shooting.

She asked why Smyth wasn't in custody, and why police were "painting her father as the bad guy."

Dunphy said she wanted to speak with Smyth and she wanted to see her father's body. She also wanted two of the cats in her father's house.

Galwaysaidthat at the time he believed it was a case of self defence and there was no reason to take Smyth into custody.

"There was no evidence that a crime had been committed," said Galway Wednesday.

He told Meghan Dunphythat viewing the body usually happens at a funeral home. He said he couldn't facilitate a meeting with Smyth and he believed there was no reason why shecouldn't getthe cats she wanted.

We know she was upset. We did not want that to happen.- RCMP Const. John Galway

The director of the funeral home advised Dunphythat she shouldn't see her father because he had been shot in the head and the autopsy left the body more disfigured.

According to O'Brien, Meghan Dunphy never did see her father before he was cremated.

"We know she was upset. We did not want that to happen," said Galway.

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