A dozen video clips lasting mere seconds, covering a span of about 14 minutes from 5:29 p.m.
From Regis Korchinski-Paquet and her mother, Claudette Beals, standing by the elevator on the 24th floor of their High Park Avenue building as two police officers arrive.
asserted
officers → last → building
To Beals pounding on her neighbour’s door, yelling: “Doreen! Doreen! Regis jumped!”
asserted
Regis → pound → door
Beals, testifying at a coroner’s inquest Friday into the death of her daughter in May 2020, didn’t like it, not one bit, when coroner counsel Roger Shallow asked gently, respectfully, if she could hear the words she spoke, captured on security video.
uncertain
she → testify → video
“The police told me that Regis committed suicide.
asserted
Regis → tell → suicide
So, you know, why are you asking me this question?”
asserted
you → know → question
Less than two minutes earlier, a woman can be heard screaming from inside Beals’ two-bedroom apartment, where she had been living with her daughter — and, as well at the time, Beals’ son Reece, along with his girlfriend and their three children.
asserted
she → hear → girlfriend
Beals told Shallow she wasn’t sure if the woman screaming had been her.
asserted
woman → tell → Shallow
Time-stamps on the video indicate Beals had entered the unit — she’d been standing in the stairwell earlier — remaining inside for one minute and one second.
asserted
she → indicate → minute
Korchinski-Paquet, after telling officers she wanted to use the washroom, had been inside for just under three minutes.
asserted
she → tell → minutes
Had there been any interaction or conversation between mother and daughter during that short period, Beals was asked.
asserted
Beals → ask → period
“More than likely I was probably arguing with her.”
asserted
I → argue → her
Shallow: “Your daughter can be heard saying words to the effect of, ‘don’t wag your finger in my face, I’m not a dog.’”
asserted
I → hear → face
Beals insisted her daughter hadn’t been talking to her.
asserted
daughter → insist → her
“Absolutely no, because my daughter does not speak like that and she has never spoken to me like that.
asserted
she → speak → that
The inquest has heard that 29-year-old Korchinski-Paquet had a long history of epileptic seizures and had experienced two seizures earlier that day.
asserted
Paquet → hear → seizures
When emerging from a seizure, Korchinski-Paquet would be confused, not even knowing her own name, sometimes angry and belligerent.
asserted
Paquet → emerge → name
Beals would try to soothe her with words of comfort and assurance.
asserted
Beals → try → comfort
A neurologist who specializes in epilepsy had explained to jurists on the first day of the inquest last week that seizures can bring on postictal delirium, with symptoms that include verbally abusive behaviour, visual hallucinations and temporary amnesia.
asserted
that → specialize → behaviour
But he hadn’t treated Korchinski-Paquet and couldn’t say whether the woman suffered from that condition.
asserted
woman → treat → condition
Beals agreed that her daughter may have been acting and speaking in an uncharacteristic way.
uncertain
daughter → agree → way
“She did say things, but I can tell you that’’ — the remark about a wagging finger and comparison to a dog — “was something that I never, ever heard Regis say.
asserted
Regis → say → that
But, in the first time she briefly entered the unit, in and out, Beals identified her own voice as asking, “What is she doing?” and she was referring to her daughter.
What the inquest didn’t hear on Friday in those brief video clips was Beals, in those chaotic minutes, accusing the officers who’d been in the apartment with her daughter of pushing her daughter towards the balcony.
asserted
who → enter → balcony
That was the charge Beals had made from the witness stand on Thursday, a shocking allegation that hadn’t been mentioned before, including in testimony by officers who’d responded to a “hotshot” call that afternoon.
asserted
who → make → call
Five phone calls to 9-1-1 had been made about an incident at that address, including from Korchinski-Paquet and from Beals.
asserted
calls → make → Beals
Beals requested that both her daughter and son removed from the premises.
asserted
daughter → request → premises
The siblings had been arguing, there was a report of knives wielded and glass bottles broken.
asserted
bottles → argue → ?
“I saw them pushing Regis towards the balcony,” Beals had testified.
asserted
Beals → see → balcony
“That’s all I saw but I saw them myself.”
asserted
I → ’ → them
The officers, nor anyone else, had been cross-examined about the scenario that Beals presented — Korchinski-Paquet pushed toward the balcony by a cop or cops.
asserted
Paquet → cros → cop
Officers who testified they witnessed that episode said Korchinski-Paquet had unexpectedly stepped outside, used her body as weight to prevent an officer from opening the balcony door, and then climb over the railing.
asserted
Paquet → testify → railing
When Korchinski-Paquet disappeared from view, the officers believed she had clambered over a partition onto a neighbour’s balcony.
asserted
she → disappear → balcony
She had not.
asserted
She → have → ?
She had fallen to her death.
asserted
She → fall → death
The inquest recessed for most of Thursday and didn’t resume until 3 p.m. Friday.
asserted
inquest → recess → p.m.
Shallow picked up mid-afternoon as if Beals’ astonishing assertion had never happened.
asserted
assertion → pick → ?
In August of 2020, the Special Investigations Unit cleared police of wrongdoing in the death of Korchinski-Paquet.
asserted
Unit → clear → Paquet
Her family rejected the findings and has filed a $10-million civil lawsuit against an array of defendants including the SIU and the police officers.
asserted
family → reject → SIU
In his final question, Shallow asked Beals if she felt guilt over her daughter’s death, even though she shouldn’t.
asserted
she → ask → death
“I feel very responsible for my daughter’s death.
asserted
I → feel → death
The Aporia
