Sask. coroner to examine death of First Nation man shot after police standoff

WATCH: A Saskatchewan coroner is holding an inquest into the 2021 shooting death of a Montreal Lake man at the hands of the RCMP.

The Saskatchewan Coroners Service is holding an inquest into the 2021 death of a Montreal Lake Cree Nation man shot following a standoff with RCMP.

Dillon McDonald was killed by police outside a home in the Montreal Lake Cree Nation — a community located about an hour north of Prince Albert — on Dec. 14, 2021.

Officers from the Waskesiu RCMP detachment were called to the community just before 5 p.m. that afternoon after being informed that McDonald had barricaded himself inside a home, armed with a gun.

According to the Sask. RCMP, the 28-year-old came out of the house carrying a gun and officers responded by opening fire, gravely wounding McDonald. He died that evening in Prince Albert’s Victoria Hospital.

In an inquest starting March 3 in Prince Albert, the coroner will investigate the circumstances of his death at the hands of police.

Coroner Robert Kennedy will lead the inquest, which may make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.

In the wake of his killing, McDonald’s sister Chantel McDonald described her brother as a “loving father … who was misunderstood by the system.”

“If they gave him a chance and helped him instead of killing him,” she told CTV News in 2021.