A coroner’s inquest into the death of Jeffery Scott Hughes gets underway in B.C. Supreme Court Monday (July 25) in Nanaimo.
Hughes was shot during a confrontation with Nanaimo RCMP Oct. 23, 2009. The 48-year-old lived in an apartment building in the 500 block of Selby Street. He was shot after police responded to a noise complaint and he allegedly brandished a weapon, escalating the confrontation that lead to the shooting.
It was the first shooting death by police in Nanaimo since December 1996 when a man wielding a knife was shot at the Departure Bay ferry terminal.
Police never released information on the type of weapon Hughes allegedly had or other details about the case because of an ongoing investigation by Major Crime Unit detectives in Victoria. That investigation cleared Nanaimo RCMP members involved in the shooting of any criminal wrongdoing in May.
The inquest will be the first time all circumstances surrounding Hughes’s death will be revealed to the public. It is expected to wrap up Friday (July 29).