'Please don't hate us': 2nd officer testifies at inquest into Felix Taqqaugaq's shooting death by police

The RCMP officer who narrowly missed being stabbed by Felix Taqqaugaq said the initial plan that night wasn't to arrest him, but rather a surveillance mission to assess the situation.

Peter Marshall, who was a sergeant in Igloolik at the time and has since been promoted to staff sergeant, testified Wednesday by video at the coroner's inquest into Taqqaugaq's shooting death by police in 2012. The inquest is examining how the 30-year-old Inuk man with schizophrenia was shot in his own home.

Marshall told the jury that he and his partner, Const. Jason Trites, were trying to locate Taqqaugaq after he made threats against the police on local radio. Marshall suspected, correctly, that Taqqaugaq was in mental distress.

After trying to reach him by phone, they went to the house.

"If we could just take a quick look from afar into the windows, just to see. Because we'd have to come up with a plan," Marshall said, adding it was part of a risk assessment to ultimately decide the safest way to make contact with Taqqaugaq.

• 'I was trying to stop him': RCMP officer apologizes for shooting Felix Taqqaugaq

'The risk went up to high'

Marshall said Trites knew the plan, as he had told him the purpose was just surveillance.

But the plan suddenly changed.

As Marshall watched the house from afar, after being let into a neighbour's home, Trites was yelling at Taqqaugaq to come out of the house with his hands empty.

"It shifted from surveillance to direct contact with Felix. Direct contact with someone, who I really didn't know and who [had threatened police]. So the risk went up to high," Marshall said.

"It was not my intention to make contact at that time. I can't speak for what Const. Trites did, but like I said it was surveillance. We'd have to make contact with him. I know that. But [we] just wanted to take a look and we'd go from there."

Once Taqqaugaq was outside, Marshall said he began screaming at the officers.

As Trites told Taqqaugaq he was under arrest and commanded him to put his hands behind his back, Marshall tried appealing to Taqqaugaq.

"I said 'Felix, it's OK, it's alright, just take it easy.' I was trying to calm him down," Marshall said. "But he didn't listen. He wasn't listening to Jason, and he was still yelling."

'I thought I was going to die'

Marshall also recounted his memory of what happened in the seconds before Taqqaugaq was shot.

He said he pursued Taqqaugaq back into the house, and saw him turn left. Having been in the house before, he knew that area was the kitchen, so Marshall stopped in the hallway.

"When I saw him turn left, my sixth sense, my gut, it kicked in," Marshall said. "I was honestly thinking, he's going to come out, and he's going to have something."

Marshall's instinct was right. Taqqaugaq turned back around the corner with a knife above his head, and he was charging at the officer.

"When I saw that knife, and when I saw his eyes, honest to goodness I thought it. I thought I was going to die," Marshall said.

"I thought, that I was going to die that night. I knew by looking into his eyes, I knew that he wanted to kill me. I knew it."

Marshall bolted the other way, yelled "go," and was out the door. Trites didn't follow, and shot Taqqaugaq.

'Please don't hate us'

Marshall enlisted the help of three neighbours to help load Taqqaugaq into the snowy bed of the RCMP truck, as Trites had shot his own hand and wasn't able to help.

When they got to the health centre, Marshall met with the family.

"I thought it was good that I met with you," Marshall said, addressing Taqqaugaq's family in the inquest room.

"I remember telling the family, 'Please don't hate us.'"

Marshall also met with Taqqaugaq's father, Augustine, who revealed his son had once pulled a knife on him too, and Augustine had to move out of the community for a little while.

"He also said something to the effect, which was translated to me, that when he wakes up in the morning, he asks himself if this is the day that his son will kill someone," Marshall said, adding that together they prayed.

"The head nurse told me that Felix had passed. And when I heard that, it was like the air went out of me. I did not want that, at all. I did not want that, at all."

After his testimony, before the phone line was cut, Taqqaugaq's brother in attendance yelled out a sincere: "Thank you Peter," providing a rare moment for the family in this inquest where, for a second, some members smiled.