Lawyer grills RCMP investigator about forensic testing after police shooting
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Lack of forensic tests and questionable control of the death scene left major gaps in the RCMP’s probe of a fatal police shooting in Newfoundland, a lawyer for the victim’s family suggested Thursday.
At the inquiry into Don Dunphy’s 2015 death, lawyer Bob Simmonds grilled Cpl. Steve Burke, the lead investigator, about how the RCMP handled the case involving a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer.
He stressed the Mounties never tried to lift fingerprints from the bullet in a .22-calibre rifle found at Dunphy’s feet at his home in Mitchell’s Brook, N.L.
Nor did the RCMP order a test to detect blood or other DNA on the firearm. And they didn’t immediately collect Dunphy’s mangled reading glasses from the scene, which witnesses have said he wore earlier the day he died.