How did Jerrim Toms die? Inquest revealed he was shot 12 times, Explained

A 29-year-old man with mental illness was shot and killed by police, eight times as he fled. We’ll see how did Jerrim Toms die and what evidence from the inquest showed in detail

What happened to Jerrim Marshall Toms?

An inquest into his death has heard that Jerrim Marshall Toms was shot 12 times by police, with two of the shots striking his chest at close range and killing him instantly.

After being involved in a high-speed police chase during which his car was spiked and halted three times, the 29-year-old passed away in the early hours of March 31, 2018, on a motorway in Auckland. He was armed with a machete and used it to threaten police officers, at least once hitting a police car’s window.

The officer was only a little more than 1 m away from Toms when the first shot struck him in the chest, according to the inquiry testimony.

Inquest after Four Years

Coroner Debra Bell apologized to Toms’ family for the delay when she launched the inquiry into his death on Friday morning at the Auckland District Court, four years after he passed away.

It is not for me to assign blame, she added, describing the investigation as a fact-finding process that would undoubtedly be challenging and emotionally taxing for the family.

She claimed that Toms’s now 4-year-old daughter was born shortly after his passing. According to Coroner Bell’s opening statement in the case, the event on March 31 started when Toms mother Joan called mental health services for assistance at 2.25 am because he was ill and had threatened to burn down her house.

The inquest heard that Jerrim’s mother Joan Toms had called the police in the hours before his passing to request a welfare check on her son who has Bipolar disorder.

However, Jerrim was not there when police arrived at the Toms’s family house in the Onehunga neighborhood of Auckland. As a result, the officer removed the job from the police alert system.

That means the cops, who were identified only as Constable A and Constable B to safeguard their identities, were unaware of Toms’s mother’s emergency call or his previous mental health issues when they encountered him on State Highway 1.

Today’s inquest heard testimony from a medical expert, whose identity and profession have been withheld, who examined Toms about two weeks before his shooting and thought that drug usage had sparked his relapse.

A memorial for Jerrim Toms at the spot where he was fatally shot by police.

Jerim Toms mental health was affected by Drug Usage

The medical expert described him as an “intelligent, genuine, and honest” man whose mental health had been impacted by drug usage.

In the four years following the occurrence, he testified to the court, he had “about 20 times” asked himself whether he could have provided Toms with any further care. “From my vantage point, the sad response is no,”

He entered a gas station and made death threats to the employee, according to CCTV evidence, before speeding off on State Highway 1. At one point, a policeman stopped to assist him, but once Toms approached him while brandishing a machete, he turned around and left.

Toms once exited his vehicle, destroyed his headlights, and then took off again. Two police officers were following Toms’s car at about 4 am when it was spiked and stopped a third time. The officers, A, and B, whose identities are kept private, were approached by the man as he exited his car brandishing a machete.

Jerrim Toms gets shot 12 times

Toms was instructed to stop and drop his weapon by Officer A, who was standing next to the open driver’s door of the police car, but Toms continued to go forward. Officer B also fired a total of 12 bullets between the two policemen. Before passing out, Toms’s ran for roughly 45 meters.

Toms passed away at the site despite first aid efforts and an ambulance call from the officers. According to Coroner Bell, the inquest will examine what transpired prior to and during the police chase that resulted in the shooting, how to prevent similar deaths in the future, and Toms’s prior access to mental health care and assistance.

Less than a month before being shot, he was released from a mental health facility in Auckland due to a history of despair, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, the inquest heard.

Just over two weeks before his passing, a medical professional saw Toms on March 15. He was described as a “bright, honest, kind, and gentle man” who did not hide his cannabis use but was enthusiastic about life and the impending birth of his daughter.

The expert, whose identity is safeguarded, stated that “he talked about his hopes of launching a Harley-Davidson importing business… about meeting his daughter.”

He testified at the inquest that he requested a follow-up appointment with Toms a month later, but Toms declined and assured the social worker he would call if necessary.

The doctor answered no when asked if there was anything more he could have done for Toms, even though he had frequently pondered this over the previous 45 months.

When questioned about whether he could determine from the session whether Toms was using meth or taking his prescription, he responded, “Doctors are not gods, we can’t read people’s minds.

There is no assurance that a patient will take their prescription and refrain from using drugs, but he stated that every patient should be given the chance to earn that confidence.

In retrospect, he admitted, “the assurance he instilled… his own belief he’ll stay well and not use drugs – did not sustain his commitment to abstain.” Police are anticipated to testify in the ongoing inquest on Monday.

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