“If you saw Devon he would put a smile on your face,” said Nayef Abdul, who grew up with LaFleur in Ottawa’s south end and bumped into him about six weeks ago.
“He was the most gentle happy man I ever met in my life. It’s such a shock, we’re all talking here, how did the guy we know get out of here and go there and get killed by the police?” Abdul said Sunday.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit says three Toronto officers in a confrontation with a man shot him outside a women’s shelter, St. Clare’s Residence, south of Steeles Ave., around 10 p.m. Friday on Bayview Ave.
He was pronounced dead at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The SIU is investigating the shooting.
Abdul said police notified LaFleur’s family, who told friends. Abdul said LaFleur was institutionalized with mental illness as a teen — Abdul visited him in Royal Ottawa Hospital and then, about six weeks ago, bumped into LaFleur and his dad in a grocery store.
“He was all smiles and he hugged me and introduced me to his dad,” Abdul said. A mutual friend saw LaFleur on Thursday, he added, and he hoped to visit a female friend in Toronto with whom had connected on Facebook.
The Ottawa Citizen reported that police there on Friday reported LaFleur missing and warned he might be armed. The newspaper quoted sources alleging that LaFleur was suspected of robbing a bank in suburban Kanata.
The newspaper said LaFleur had been arrested in 2007 and 2009 for robberies in Ottawa, including one where he was armed with a knife.
LaFleur’s Facebook page includes photos of him in B.C., including one where is hugging a massive tree. He describes himself as “Lost Boy.”
Toronto police have faced questions about how they handle people in crisis since the July 2013 shooting death of Sammy Yatim by an officer later convicted of attempted murder.
Last month, the Toronto police services board voted to create an external mental health advisory committee to annually evaluate the service’s training, use of force and other actions while dealing with people in crisis.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com/
Author: David Rider
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