Jayda Taylor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Editor’s note: This story contains description of a fatal police shooting and mentions of suicide.
A grieving father had to step out of the court room in tears on Wednesday as a paramedic described his son’s last moments of life.
Dillon McDonald died after being shot by RCMP officers in Montreal Lake Cree Nation in December 2021. On the final day of the inquest into his death, his father, Dirk McDonald, asked the paramedic if he had said anything in the ambulance.
Dirk said he didn’t want his last words to die with him — and he was hoping his son was calling out for him.
“His blood is on my hands. I called him (in) to help him, not to kill him,” said Dirk in an interview. “I believed in the system.”
“There were so many ways they could have made him be alive here today.”
Dirk testified that he came home to find Dillon in his living room, breaching court-ordered conditions that he not be in Montreal Lake Cree Nation. He appeared to be hallucinating and had a gun.
Dirk left and reported Dillon to the community’s security, prompting RCMP to respond and secure the scene. Officers spent hours trying to negotiate with Dillon through a loud hailer.
He eventually stepped out on to a rise at the top of the stairs and lifted his gun towards police. Three officers fired at him, with two bullets hitting his stomach area.
The jury ruled that Dillon died due to homicide, not suicide.
Previous evidence from Sgt. Wes Peters, who investigated the case, suggested that Dillon was considering suicide by cop.
The inquest listened to a recording of a call between Dillon and his brother about a year and a half prior to the shooting, where Dillon said “I don’t care about my life anymore…I’m going to go out bucking with the cops. That’s my suicide right there, by the cops, as long as I get one of them first.”
Just a day before he died, he allegedly made a post on Facebook saying “I’m ready to die, Lord, and I hope I go to Heaven.”
Dirk said he was upset that the inquest included evidence of a phone call from a long time prior, where Peters was asked what certain gang terms meant, along with Facebook photos showing his gang involvement.
Bullet that ‘basically destroyed’ liver leads to death, says pathologist
Peters also said that Dillon was well-known to the RCMP, and that eight out of 10 security calls in the community involved Dillon and others in the gang.
“It was pre-meditated, it felt like, because of his history,” said Dirk.
But to him, Dillon was “full of love.” He enjoyed drawing, music, and sports of all kind.
“Hockey, baseball, soccer, you name it. Ball hockey, he was on many hockey teams growing up and still participated leading up to his passing with the kids, teaching them how to skate,” he said.
“My brother was a very loving father and a very loving sibling. He cared so much about his family,” added his sister, Chantel McDonald.
She said his criminal activity leading up to the shooting stems from the deaths of his mother and brother, who died just a month before.
“We all never got to grieve properly,” she said. “He was just very hurt.”
“His daughter just came to see me last night. I let her visit me all day yesterday, and it just brought back more memories. The one thing he told me is ‘Make sure she never forgets about me. Be there for her.’”
Dirk said his son may still be alive had the RCMP exhausted other options before shooting him.
He questioned why they didn’t deploy the police dog as soon as Dillon stepped out of the house, or tried to have a family member or other member of the community calm him down.
Peters, however, said the RCMP acted appropriately with the information they had at the time.
Although Dillon’s gun was later found to be unloaded, Peters said police always need to act like it’s loaded.
The jury made two recommendations for the RCMP — to continue enhancing Indigenous representation and providing cultural diversity training at all levels.
Dirk added that First Nations communities need more healing lodges over more policing to address mental health and addictions.
Dr. Shaun Ladham, the province’s chief forensic pathologist, determined Dillon died from one of the two bullets that hit him.
“His liver was basically destroyed,” he said. “The whole centre of it was just torn apart.”
“You’re not going to survive the injury that he had.”
The bullet also damaged one of his kidneys and caused significant bleeding, which — as Ladham explained — likely wouldn’t have been survivable even if he was shot in an operating room.
Ladham said Dillon had several superficial cuts, abrasions and bruises, bite marks on his arm from the police dog, and a small hemorrhage on his scalp, but that these injuries did not contribute to his death.
Because Dillon fell on the gun, the police dog was deployed to pull him down the steps away from the weapon.
Toxicology reports showed a high level of alcohol in his system at 286mg per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80 mg, and Ladham said a person without any alcohol tolerance would likely die at 350 mg.
He said there was no soot in his airway, ruling out smoke inhalation from the fire inside of the house.
The jury at a coroner’s inquest must determine who died, as well as how, when, where, and by what means the person died. In addition, the jury may make recommendations to appropriate agencies to prevent similar deaths in the future.
