Black Lives Matter protests disrupt police board meeting

Demonstrators with Black Lives Matter Toronto disrupted a meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board at police headquarters Friday, just as the board was preparing to discuss the police shooting death last summer of Andrew Loku.

Loku was a father of five shot dead last July 5 in the third-floor hallway ofan apartment complex in the city's west end that was leased by the Canadian Mental Health Association. He had refused to comply with police demands to drop a hammer he was holdingand threatened to kill a friend of a guest in the apartment.

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The officer who shot Loku and a second officer had entered the building and confronted Loku, with guns drawn, in thehallway.

Black Lives Matter Toronto protesters say they seeLoku's death as a symptom of what they consider a racist police force.

Chanting "black lives, they matter here," about 10protesters chastised the board for not releasing the name of the officer who shot Loku during theconfrontation.

The group directed some of itswrath at Mayor John Tory, who sits on the board and who sat stoically during the protest. They accused him of ignoring their demand for public consultations on what they see as anti-black racism within the police service.

They also accused the board of deliberately delaying discussion of the Loku report until late in the meeting to avoid questions.

When the protesters had left the room and the meeting resumed, Coun. Shelley Carrolldisputed that accusation, saying she'd toldthe protesters beforehandthat the discussion of the Loku report would be delayed so the board could fieldas many questions as possible.

A coroner's inquestwas called into Loku's death in April, one month afterthe province's Special Investigations Unit announced the officer who shot Loku would not face any charges. The SIU does not release the names of officers it has investigated but has not charged.

In his report, SIU Director Tony Loparco, while exonerating theofficers involved in the shooting, accused anotherToronto police officerof inappropriate behavior after the shooting.

"Following the shooting, a member of your service saw fit to attempt to access and download video recordings captured by cameras situated on the third floor hallway where the shooting occurred," Loparco wrote. "I have not as yet heard an adequate explanation for such conduct."

TorontoPolice Chief Mark Saunders' own report on the incident which drew the ire of the protesters was eventuallly discussed and accepted by the board.

That reportcleared theofficer who tried to download the images, with the chief concludingthat his officer's actions amounted to "appropriate scene management" and that "the officers securing the video were acting upon the direction of the Service's SIU Liaison officer. The SIU had the video examined and it was determined that there was no evidence of tampering."