Coroner’s probe into Chanthachak shooting put off to Tuesday

(updated) A coroner’s inquest examining the death of a man killed by a Hamilton police officer has been held over until tomorrow.

Phonesay Chanthachak (left) was 27 when he was killed in February of last year. He was driving a stolen van in east Hamilton and hadn’t shown up for court that morning on robbery charges.

He tried to drive through a police barricade and several shots were fired, one of them killing him. The Special Investigations Unit looked into the conduct of Constable Ryan Tocher, who fired the fatal shot, and cleared the officer. But the coroner’s inquest is mandatory.

Tocher (left) had also faced criminal charges after a refugee from Burma was badly hurt during a police drug raid. He was cleared of those charges but the judge raised questions about a cover-up by other police officers.

And in a 2007 case, Tocher was cleared by the SIU after killing a man who went on a rampage with a hatchet in a pool hall. Tocher could be called as a witness in this case.

CHCH’s Al Sweeney reports on what happened in court Monday: