Sylvia Klibingaitis. Graduation photo of Sylvia - University of Toronto, Christianity and Culture, Bachelor Degree.
A Toronto officer has been cleared in the death of a 52-year-old woman who called police saying she was bipolar and had a knife she wanted to use to commit a crime.
In a decision released on Thursday, Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, said the officer involved should not be charged in the shooting death because there was no criminal wrongdoing.
The SIU report provided new information about the confrontation between Sylvia Klibingaitis and police on Oct. 7, when officers were called to the North York home where she lived with her mother. Before, little was known other than police bullets had been fired and Ms. Klibingaitis had died. Police sources had previously told reporters she had lunged at police with a knife.
On an audio recording of the conversation between police and the dispatcher, listened to by The Globe and Mail, officers are told that Ms. Klibingaitis had said she was bipolar.
"That was a cry for help," her sister, Anita Wasowicz, said in a recent interview. "It's like they don't think people with mental illnesses deserve to live."
The SIU decision said Ms. Klibingaitis called the police at about 9:30 a.m. and told the operator she had a knife and was going to commit a crime. Two police officers approached the house, the SIU said, as the woman came outside with a large knife in her hand. She went toward an officer in a threatening manner and refused to drop the knife when he pointed his gun at her, stepped backward and repeatedly yelled, "Put the knife down!"
Ms. Klibingaitis responded, "No," according to the SIU, and when she continued, the officer fired his gun three times rapidly. The officers performed CPR, but the woman died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
The audio recording indicates that Ms. Klibingaitis stayed on the line for several minutes when she called police to say she had a knife and wanted to kill her mother.
"The caller is the suspect," can be heard in the audio recording obtained from radioreference.com., a website that broadcasts and hosts police communication audio. "She is refusing to put the knife down; saying she's bipolar."
Ms. Wasowicz said the SIU decision has left her distraught for her family and concerned for public safety. She said it calls into question the way police respond to the mentally ill, particularly when they are made aware someone has an illness.
"I think it's a very sad day for the police and for the people of Toronto," she said. "I think the risk of being killed is a very sad reality that people will have to consider. Sylvia didn't have time to consider, she was in a crisis."
Her sister, who had lived with mental illness for years, had been under a lot of stress. Her aging mother was likely going to move out of the house and need professional care, and her daughter was planning to leave the country.
Her symptoms, primarily delusions, had been under control enough for her to graduate from the University of Toronto, sing in a choir and work at a seniors' home. But her symptoms had flared up again, her sister said. It was not like her to become violent, she added.
"This isn't an individual who had any kind of past or pattern of acting out aggressively," Ms. Wasowicz said. "She was mainly just gentle."
Ian Scott, director of the SIU, said the police officer was justified in using lethal force in the situation.
"The subject officer was attacked by Ms. Klibingaitis, who was armed with a knife and would not comply with his commands to drop it," he said.
"While the death of Ms. Klibingaitis is a tragic event, in my view, the subject officer was justified in discharging his firearm because he had a reasonable apprehension of death or serious bodily harm with no escape."