Windsor police Chief Al Frederick says last week's fatal shooting downtown was traumatizing for everyone involved.
He spoke to area reporters for the first time since Matthew Mahoney was shot and killed in the early morning hours on March 21 outside the McDonald's on Wyandotte St. E at Goyeau St.
Lethal force was used after witnesses say Mahoney pulled a knife out of a butcher block, advanced toward an officer and a taser failed to bring him to the ground.
Frederick says everyone involved in the incident was debriefed, from officers to EMS and 911 Operators — psychologists are on staff and available, but he says peer-to-peer counselling is where those involved have turned.
"It's a large network of officers who are interested in the wellbeing of others," says Frederick. "Other officers know of their existence and lean on them on how to perceive things and all sorts of different ways of dealing with trauma. It's trauma to the officers that were there, just like it is to anyone in the community that would have been witness to it that day."
The officers involved suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Frederick says those involved are rebounding from what was a traumatic day.
"The officers are responding better than I expected to be quite frank," says Frederick. "I attribute that to the tremendous supports that are present in the organization."
Fredrick says he has spoken to the officers directly involved with the shooting.
"I spoke personally with both the officers with Deputy Chief [Vince] Power," he says. "They're doing as well as can be expected and they're great young officers — that's all I can tell you."
Windsor police have begun a parallel investigation related to the incident, but the Special Investigations Unit is still leading the probe into the shooting.
— with files from Rob Hindi