Barr Tribunal: Training and experience were important for officers faced with a deadly-force situation, as often the decision to fire had to be made within seconds or minutes, a Canadian police expert told the tribunal yesterday.
Mr Robert Leatherdale, a former assistant commissioner of the Canadian Mounties, was one of a number of international police experts testifying on siege situations. He was giving evidence at the tribunal which is investigating the fatal shooting of John Carthy in April 2000 by gardaí at Abbeylara, Co Longford, after a 25-hour siege.
He said training and experience were important to deal with a situation of deadly force.
In a document giving Canadian case examples, it was shown that in most situations officers found themselves in a violent deadly-force situation within seconds or minutes.
"It's within that timeframe that a decision has to be made as to what the action is going to be," said Mr Leatherdale.
He added that it came down to an individual decision whether to use deadly force. Some of the situations developed so quickly that an officer would not have time to converse with a senior officer.
He said dealing with non-compliant, armed and mentally ill people was amongst the most difficult situations for a negotiator.
He said that quite often the mentally ill person did not accept reasoning.
Mr Cian Ferriter, counsel for the Garda commissioner, asked if it would be permissible for a Canadian police officer to give a warning to put down the gun or he would shoot.
Mr Leatherdale said he did not think there was a standard procedure, but if an officer said "put down the gun", it was pretty obvious what the results were going to be to the individual if he did not comply.
However, he added that whether the individual was conscious of that or not was another thing.