Coroner's inquest jury makes recommendation in fatal Garson police standoff

A group of five people from Greater Sudbury made a list of recommendations Wednesday following a coroner's inquest looking into a fatal 2018 police standoff.

Steven Thornton, 63, was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head inside his home on Sunny Street in Garson on Sept. 13, 2018, following an 18-hour standoff.

Police were called to the home off Old Skead Road after Thornton shot his wife, 57.

She was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.

The inquest began Aug. 26 and was held virtually.

A dozen witnesses were asked to testify with Bonnie Goldberg presiding.

On Sept. 4, a list of seven recommendations was made by the jury to prevent similar deaths in the future.

All but one of the recommendations were made for both the Greater Sudbury and Barrie police services that responded to the incident.

It is recommended that the two police departments hold individual and interagency operational debriefings after a critical incident and create a formal written record of them so lessons learned and identified improvements can be shared.

During a crisis negotiation, police can lockout phone services so that all outgoing calls made by the person they are trying to communicate with are directed to a trained negotiator.

The jury recommends that both agencies develop a procedure for "locking and unlocking phones involved in a crisis negotiation, including during any period of transition from one police service to another."

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A formal lockout procedure should be created and include a required form to be filled out with timestamps and signatures.

The police services should develop a procedure "that requires the transfer to the negotiator's phone kit at the earliest opportunity where negotiations commence using an external phone."

A protocol to ensure any potential threat or trigger is not visible to the barricaded or person experiencing a mental health episode during a critical incident is also recommended.

One recommendation made to just the Sudbury police involves developing a succession plan to allow for access to an on-call psychiatrist.