REGINA - A six person jury has ruled that the manner of Ryan Booker’s death was a suicide.
That was the decision that came down Wednesday afternoon in Regina, in connection to an incident outside Moose Jaw in 2022, in which Booker was killed in a standoff with police.
The jury was asked to make determinations on five questions: the name of the deceased, when the individual died, the time of death, the place of death where the individual died, the medical cause of death and by what means the death occurred or the manner of death.
On those questions, the jury confirmed the name of the deceased was Ryan Booker, that he died on July 17, 2022 at 0710, that the place of death was Highway 1 Belle Plaine, that the cause of death was a gunshot wound, and that the manner of death was suicide.
There were no recommendations made by the jury. The jury deliberated for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon before reaching their conclusions.
Testimony took place over three days with 15 witnesses called to testify during the inquest.
The final witnesses were called Wednesday morning. The presiding Coroner Aaron Fox then gave instructions to the jury Wednesday afternoon before they went into what would be two hours of deliberations.
In his jury instructions, Fox recounted the testimony over the three days of the inquest:
He pointed to testimony from Kaitlyn Hofer, who had described Ryan as a loving partner and father. But Fox noted she had testified that Booker had been “spiralling downhill” weeks before his death, using alcohol and drugs. By July 16th, he was threatening to overdose on drugs.
Ryan ended up going to the house where his mother was, and took a .243 rifle that was there. Fox noted that he was intent on going to the Superstore parking lot to confront Kaitlyn when she returned from Craven. The gun was a .243 rifle, but it was later learned the gun was not loaded.
Moose Jaw police then went to the Superstore parking lot and found Ryan, but he would not surrender the gun. He drove out and headed eastbound on No. 1 highway, turning around back to the city before he returned to the No. 1 highway and stopped near Belle Plaine.
By that time, crisis negotiators were talking to him. Fox pointed to the testimony from a number of officers and family members about what Ryan had said, and said there appeared to be a fairly common theme: that he was armed with a rifle, and that he made a number of threats to harm Kaitlyn but more so to harm himself. Fox also pointed to Ryan saying he wanted to commit “suicide by cop” because he couldn't do it himself. He was also not interested in getting any help.
Fox pointed to the situation coming to a head when Ryan took his rifle, stuck out of the car window, and moved it into an aiming position at the officers.
Fox then pointed to testimony from RCMP Cst. Burton Steele, who ended up firing the shot that killed Ryan. Fox noted Steele had testified that Ryan pointed the rifle at him, and based on what he knew and what he believed and saw, he believed Ryan was about to fire at him and that others in the area were at risk of death or grievous bodily harm.
The main question the jury had to answer was on the manner of death and they had to choose among five options: natural causes, an accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined.
In his charge to the jury, Fox noted the issue was about what was Ryan thinking or intending at the time. He noted Cst. Steele had intentionally fired the rifle and that there was no question about that. That could point to a homicide.
But then Fox noted there was a further question of whether the action of Cst. Steele had resulted from an intentional act by Ryan, where he intended to aim the rifle at police knowing the probable consequence would be that he would be shot by police. That would point to suicide.
Another possibility he posed to the jury was to consider whether this was an accident: did Ryan accidentally put the gun out of the window not realizing or not intending that he would be shot. In the end, the jury determined the manner of death was suicide.
Family feel no closure with inquest result
After the inquest wrapped up, members of Ryan's family made it known they did not feel a sense of closure.
“I feel like we waited three years for this, with a narrative that he was driving, it was a high-speed chase, that he was very erratic, that he was crazy, saying all these hurtful things,” said Sydney Booker, Ryan’s sister.
“The fact of the matter was, he was scared, he was terrified, and he was sad.”
"Maybe sometime later" was the reaction of Barry Nosal, Ryan’s dad, when asked if he felt any closure.
Nosal told reports he had thought the inquest would "make some closure for me, because I was struggling with it." But Nosal made known he was particularly unimpressed with the testimony, in particular from the officer who fired the shot that killed his son.
"To me, that officer... wasn't authentic. I just wasn't impressed. I wasn't impressed with the whole process. It was three days of extreme pain. And... I don't feel much was accomplished.”
Nosal also had issues with how things played out on that fateful day in 2022.
"I think that it was a gong show. I think you got three different police departments trying to communicate on different frequencies. That's not going to work... I honestly believe that there's... there's a lot more going on in this than meets the eye. I think that murder by suicide, or death by suicide, or suicide by cop, was the outcome they wanted to make this go away. That's honestly what I think. I'm pretty bitter, to be honest."
Sydney felt the whole situation could have been handled differently, believing there were many opportunities to use less lethal force. "I think that the police have a job to do, but ultimately, from all the testimonies, there were so many opportunities to dissolve the situation before it got this far," she said.
The family members also were unhappy with how they believe Ryan was portrayed during testimony. Sydney wanted people to know about the Ryan Booker that she knew: that of a loving father.
“He was the kindest, most thoughtful, most caring person that I ever knew,” she said, saying his greatest pride and joy was being a dad to his two sons.
“During this whole time, during the testimonies from everybody, they kept saying that the two things that brought him the most peace and comfort were his two boys,” Sydney said. “He had so much love for his son, so much love for his fiance, and he was just scared. And unfortunately, mental health is a huge problem, and I just wish he had the chance to continue to be the great man that he was.”
