Paul Koester
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22/05/07, Gary Mason, Today, the Mountie who shot this mill worker will begin to quench B.C.'s thirst for answers, Source.
24/05/07, Laura Drake, Mountie's original notes into shooting now destroyed, Source.
22/05/07, Gary Mason, Today, the Mountie who shot this mill worker will begin to quench B.C.'s thirst for answers, (Back).
HOUSTON, B.C. -- How did Ian Bush meet his death in the local RCMP detachment on the evening of Oct. 29, 2005?
Today, we get an explanation - from the officer who fired a single shot into the back of the 22-year-old mill worker's head. But after Constable Paul Koester finishes telling a coroner's inquest what happened in the final seconds of Mr. Bush's life, he will face a grilling from the lawyer representing the family of the deceased.
That lawyer, Howard Rubin, questioned aspects of the investigation into the shooting yesterday. Namely, the pathologist who did the autopsy makes no reference in his report to what appears to be a huge bruise - three inches wide by 10 inches long - on the victim's left inner thigh. The pathologist has said the wound may have been an infection.
If indeed it was a bruise, it's an injury Mr. Rubin - and a pathologist expected to testify on this matter - says is consistent with someone who had been kneed in the groin area.
However, an injury of that nature appears inconsistent with Constable Koester's version of what happened, Mr. Rubin says - namely that he was the subject of a one-way violent assault by Mr. Bush.
Constable Koester is expected to take the witness stand this afternoon. His testimony may last until tomorrow morning. What most will be waiting for is his recollection of what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
According to information obtained recently by The Globe and Mail, the RCMP officer has told investigators he was in the act of releasing Mr. Bush from custody - he'd been arrested roughly 20 minutes earlier for having an open beer and giving police a phony name - when the young man suddenly became violent.
According to Constable Koester's statement to RCMP investigators, Mr. Bush said: "Why don't I punch you in the fucking face?" And then did. A struggle ensued and Mr. Bush continued to beat up the officer, according to Constable Koester's statement. Eventually, the pair ended up on a nearby couch, with Mr. Bush on top of the officer.
Again, according to Constable Koester's statement, he remembers Mr. Bush having him in a headlock with his left arm. Constable Koester says he was face down in the couch. He managed to turn his head slightly to the right, he recalls, and saying: "Ian, the fight is over."
Mr. Bush failed to relent, replying: "I'm not leaving so you can arrest me again." At some point after this, Mr. Bush apparently said to Constable Koester: "Take your last breath."
Constable Koester told investigators he began to feel rubbery and faint. He began to see stars. He felt his life was in peril. With a bigger and stronger Mr. Bush on top of him and while on the brink of unconsciousness, he got his service revolver out of its holster. He told investigators he began hitting Mr. Bush in the head with the butt of the gun a few times with his right arm.
Feeling he was going to be "dead in seconds" unless he did something, Constable Koester is expected to tell the inquest that he fired a shot into the back of Mr. Bush's head, while his face was buried in the couch.
Mr. Rubin is expected to ask how he got his right hand in a position to shoot Mr. Bush in the back of the head while the man was on top, strangling him.
Remarkably, in the course of its investigation, the RCMP did not ask Constable Koester to re-enact the scene even though it was recommended by officers from the New Westminster police department that reviewed the RCMP's initial investigation.
Why?
Because the RCMP said the officer couldn't recall certain events from the incident.
The RCMP's investigation into the shooting found that Constable Koester acted in self-defence. The force recommended no charges be laid and the Crown agreed.
There are a couple of other matters that are surely going to be raised during the course of the inquest, scheduled to run until Friday:
Mr. Bush was killed near 10 p.m. on Oct. 29. However, his body wasn't removed from the detachment to be autopsied until two days later.
At that point it had already begun to decompose. How was this allowed?
Why was Constable Koester advised by a member of the RCMP's Member Employment Assistance Plan not to make any statements to investigators until he talked to a lawyer assigned by the force? Is this standard procedure?
Constable Koester told investigators he began discharging Mr. Bush after a call came in about a disturbance on 14th Street. If that's true, the struggle and shooting would had to have happened in an exceedingly short period of time given the recorded time of death. Is this possible given what the officer says took place during that time?
The Bush family is hoping the coroner's jury makes several key recommendations for which it is pushing. In instances of in-custody deaths involving the police, the Bush family wants an independent body to handle the investigation, not the RCMP itself.
Mr. Rubin is also representing the Bush family in a civil suit it has launched against Constable Koester and the RCMP. A date has not yet been set for that case.
24/05/07, Laura Draqke, Mountie's original notes into shooting now destroyed, (Back).
HOUSTON B.C. — Ian Bush went from being completely co-operative to an aggressive attacker in a flash, said RCMP Constable Paul Koester, the officer who shot Mr. Bush to death.
Constable Koester, 30, appeared emotional as he prepared to testify yesterday during the second day of the coroner's inquiry into the 22-year-old mill worker's death. His testimony spanned the whole day, throughout which he constantly referred to a Nov. 17, 2005, statement he made regarding what happened that night. Previous notes he had made on the incident, he said, had been destroyed.
Constable Koester said he arrested Mr. Bush for an open bottle of beer outside of a hockey game on the night of Oct. 29, 2005. He twice provided the wrong name in the process of having the liquor violation ticket issued.
Constable Koester, while under direct examination by Coroner's Counsel Mitch Houg, said he arrested Mr. Bush for obstructing a police officer and took him into the detachment to issue a promise-to-appear order.
Mr. Bush was read his rights by Constable Koester at 9:18 p.m. He was dead by 9:41 p.m.
He said Mr. Bush had been co-operative the whole time, save for the false names.
It was when he was writing up a promise to appear order in the detachment's interrogation room regarding the obstruction charge that Mr. Bush suddenly became violent.
"From out of nowhere he yells 'Why don't I just punch you in the fucking face,' " Constable Koester said.
The two men, who both weighed around 180 pounds at the time, struggled across the room, with Constable Koester hanging on to the front of Mr. Bush's jacket.
"I remember thinking 'I have to get out my defensive baton.' But in this kind of close hand-to-hand, it's impossible."
Constable Koester said that at some point he was punched so hard by Mr. Bush his legs gave out and he fell to his knees with his head and torso pushed onto the cushions of the couch at the far end of the room. He said Mr. Bush was behind him and to his right, choking him with his arms.
"And that's when he said to me 'Take your last breaths,' " Constable Koester said, losing control of his voice, his face wrinkled with emotion.
"I knew he was trying to kill me."
He pulled his service pistol out from his holster, he said, to try and scare Mr. Bush off him. In the end, he shot Mr. Bush in the back of the skull, right above his neck.
Constable Koester said he doesn't remember how he got out from under Mr. Bush's body. He also said he didn't know at that time if Mr. Bush was dead or not.
RCMP forensic experts testified on Tuesday that the blood spatter at the scene was consistent with Constable Koester's story. However, Bush family lawyer Howard Rubin has said he doesn't believe this version of events.
Mr. Rubin asked Constable Koester to demonstrate how the two men were positioned right before the shooting by demonstrating on Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew.
Constable Koester refused, but the 6-foot-4 officer did demonstrate on a table how he reached his right arm up behind him from a crouching position to shoot Mr. Bush.
"I just don't think that his story is credible at all. I don't think that it's physically possible, it isn't the reaction that you would have expected from Ian," his mother, Linda Bush, said.
"I think it's just really hard to believe that you can be in that kind of position and not worry about shooting your own self in the head," Andrea Bush, the dead man's sister, said.
The family also expressed disbelief that Constable Koester didn't check how Ian was doing given that he testified he didn't know whether or not he was dead.
Constable Koester made a frantic radio call for help after shooting Mr. Bush. His anguished screams rang out through the community hall as a recording of the police scanner was played.
Casual banter between other police officers is interrupted by an unintelligible scream from Constable Koester in the recording. The dispatcher radios back to ask if everything is okay.
"No!" the officer screams. "Can you help me?"
Dressed in a black suit with a maroon shirt and tie, Constable Koester cried as the recording was played.
Constable Koester's wife and parents were watching him testify from the front row. Across the aisle from them sat Mr. Bush's parents and two sisters. Near the start of the day, Mr. Bush's father, Dawson, angrily extended his middle finger toward the officer on the stand.
"I have often thought of his family and his parents in particular. I do have a lot of empathy for them. Your child is your child, no matter what," Linda Bush said.
Constable Koester's testimony continued into the evening. The coroner's inquiry is now two full days behind schedule. It will continue until tomorrow, and then reconvene July 2.
(Back)
24/05/07, Laura Drake, Mountie's original notes into shooting now destroyed, Source.
22/05/07, Gary Mason, Today, the Mountie who shot this mill worker will begin to quench B.C.'s thirst for answers, (Back).
HOUSTON, B.C. -- How did Ian Bush meet his death in the local RCMP detachment on the evening of Oct. 29, 2005?
Today, we get an explanation - from the officer who fired a single shot into the back of the 22-year-old mill worker's head. But after Constable Paul Koester finishes telling a coroner's inquest what happened in the final seconds of Mr. Bush's life, he will face a grilling from the lawyer representing the family of the deceased.
That lawyer, Howard Rubin, questioned aspects of the investigation into the shooting yesterday. Namely, the pathologist who did the autopsy makes no reference in his report to what appears to be a huge bruise - three inches wide by 10 inches long - on the victim's left inner thigh. The pathologist has said the wound may have been an infection.
If indeed it was a bruise, it's an injury Mr. Rubin - and a pathologist expected to testify on this matter - says is consistent with someone who had been kneed in the groin area.
However, an injury of that nature appears inconsistent with Constable Koester's version of what happened, Mr. Rubin says - namely that he was the subject of a one-way violent assault by Mr. Bush.
Constable Koester is expected to take the witness stand this afternoon. His testimony may last until tomorrow morning. What most will be waiting for is his recollection of what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
According to information obtained recently by The Globe and Mail, the RCMP officer has told investigators he was in the act of releasing Mr. Bush from custody - he'd been arrested roughly 20 minutes earlier for having an open beer and giving police a phony name - when the young man suddenly became violent.
According to Constable Koester's statement to RCMP investigators, Mr. Bush said: "Why don't I punch you in the fucking face?" And then did. A struggle ensued and Mr. Bush continued to beat up the officer, according to Constable Koester's statement. Eventually, the pair ended up on a nearby couch, with Mr. Bush on top of the officer.
Again, according to Constable Koester's statement, he remembers Mr. Bush having him in a headlock with his left arm. Constable Koester says he was face down in the couch. He managed to turn his head slightly to the right, he recalls, and saying: "Ian, the fight is over."
Mr. Bush failed to relent, replying: "I'm not leaving so you can arrest me again." At some point after this, Mr. Bush apparently said to Constable Koester: "Take your last breath."
Constable Koester told investigators he began to feel rubbery and faint. He began to see stars. He felt his life was in peril. With a bigger and stronger Mr. Bush on top of him and while on the brink of unconsciousness, he got his service revolver out of its holster. He told investigators he began hitting Mr. Bush in the head with the butt of the gun a few times with his right arm.
Feeling he was going to be "dead in seconds" unless he did something, Constable Koester is expected to tell the inquest that he fired a shot into the back of Mr. Bush's head, while his face was buried in the couch.
Mr. Rubin is expected to ask how he got his right hand in a position to shoot Mr. Bush in the back of the head while the man was on top, strangling him.
Remarkably, in the course of its investigation, the RCMP did not ask Constable Koester to re-enact the scene even though it was recommended by officers from the New Westminster police department that reviewed the RCMP's initial investigation.
Why?
Because the RCMP said the officer couldn't recall certain events from the incident.
The RCMP's investigation into the shooting found that Constable Koester acted in self-defence. The force recommended no charges be laid and the Crown agreed.
There are a couple of other matters that are surely going to be raised during the course of the inquest, scheduled to run until Friday:
Mr. Bush was killed near 10 p.m. on Oct. 29. However, his body wasn't removed from the detachment to be autopsied until two days later.
At that point it had already begun to decompose. How was this allowed?
Why was Constable Koester advised by a member of the RCMP's Member Employment Assistance Plan not to make any statements to investigators until he talked to a lawyer assigned by the force? Is this standard procedure?
Constable Koester told investigators he began discharging Mr. Bush after a call came in about a disturbance on 14th Street. If that's true, the struggle and shooting would had to have happened in an exceedingly short period of time given the recorded time of death. Is this possible given what the officer says took place during that time?
The Bush family is hoping the coroner's jury makes several key recommendations for which it is pushing. In instances of in-custody deaths involving the police, the Bush family wants an independent body to handle the investigation, not the RCMP itself.
Mr. Rubin is also representing the Bush family in a civil suit it has launched against Constable Koester and the RCMP. A date has not yet been set for that case.
24/05/07, Laura Draqke, Mountie's original notes into shooting now destroyed, (Back).
HOUSTON B.C. — Ian Bush went from being completely co-operative to an aggressive attacker in a flash, said RCMP Constable Paul Koester, the officer who shot Mr. Bush to death.
Constable Koester, 30, appeared emotional as he prepared to testify yesterday during the second day of the coroner's inquiry into the 22-year-old mill worker's death. His testimony spanned the whole day, throughout which he constantly referred to a Nov. 17, 2005, statement he made regarding what happened that night. Previous notes he had made on the incident, he said, had been destroyed.
Constable Koester said he arrested Mr. Bush for an open bottle of beer outside of a hockey game on the night of Oct. 29, 2005. He twice provided the wrong name in the process of having the liquor violation ticket issued.
Constable Koester, while under direct examination by Coroner's Counsel Mitch Houg, said he arrested Mr. Bush for obstructing a police officer and took him into the detachment to issue a promise-to-appear order.
Mr. Bush was read his rights by Constable Koester at 9:18 p.m. He was dead by 9:41 p.m.
He said Mr. Bush had been co-operative the whole time, save for the false names.
It was when he was writing up a promise to appear order in the detachment's interrogation room regarding the obstruction charge that Mr. Bush suddenly became violent.
"From out of nowhere he yells 'Why don't I just punch you in the fucking face,' " Constable Koester said.
The two men, who both weighed around 180 pounds at the time, struggled across the room, with Constable Koester hanging on to the front of Mr. Bush's jacket.
"I remember thinking 'I have to get out my defensive baton.' But in this kind of close hand-to-hand, it's impossible."
Constable Koester said that at some point he was punched so hard by Mr. Bush his legs gave out and he fell to his knees with his head and torso pushed onto the cushions of the couch at the far end of the room. He said Mr. Bush was behind him and to his right, choking him with his arms.
"And that's when he said to me 'Take your last breaths,' " Constable Koester said, losing control of his voice, his face wrinkled with emotion.
"I knew he was trying to kill me."
He pulled his service pistol out from his holster, he said, to try and scare Mr. Bush off him. In the end, he shot Mr. Bush in the back of the skull, right above his neck.
Constable Koester said he doesn't remember how he got out from under Mr. Bush's body. He also said he didn't know at that time if Mr. Bush was dead or not.
RCMP forensic experts testified on Tuesday that the blood spatter at the scene was consistent with Constable Koester's story. However, Bush family lawyer Howard Rubin has said he doesn't believe this version of events.
Mr. Rubin asked Constable Koester to demonstrate how the two men were positioned right before the shooting by demonstrating on Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew.
Constable Koester refused, but the 6-foot-4 officer did demonstrate on a table how he reached his right arm up behind him from a crouching position to shoot Mr. Bush.
"I just don't think that his story is credible at all. I don't think that it's physically possible, it isn't the reaction that you would have expected from Ian," his mother, Linda Bush, said.
"I think it's just really hard to believe that you can be in that kind of position and not worry about shooting your own self in the head," Andrea Bush, the dead man's sister, said.
The family also expressed disbelief that Constable Koester didn't check how Ian was doing given that he testified he didn't know whether or not he was dead.
Constable Koester made a frantic radio call for help after shooting Mr. Bush. His anguished screams rang out through the community hall as a recording of the police scanner was played.
Casual banter between other police officers is interrupted by an unintelligible scream from Constable Koester in the recording. The dispatcher radios back to ask if everything is okay.
"No!" the officer screams. "Can you help me?"
Dressed in a black suit with a maroon shirt and tie, Constable Koester cried as the recording was played.
Constable Koester's wife and parents were watching him testify from the front row. Across the aisle from them sat Mr. Bush's parents and two sisters. Near the start of the day, Mr. Bush's father, Dawson, angrily extended his middle finger toward the officer on the stand.
"I have often thought of his family and his parents in particular. I do have a lot of empathy for them. Your child is your child, no matter what," Linda Bush said.
Constable Koester's testimony continued into the evening. The coroner's inquiry is now two full days behind schedule. It will continue until tomorrow, and then reconvene July 2.
(Back)
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