The Toronto Star
TORONTO — Officials are pointing fingers at each other over questions of whether human or mechanical error rendered two community housing elevators inoperable and forced paramedics to scale 12 flights of a Regent Park highrise to reach a wounded 15-year-old boy.
Documents obtained by the Star through a freedom of information request reveal a long history of complaints and maintenance calls about the faulty, aging elevators - some 50 separate incidents in the year before the Jan. 18 shooting.
The documents also reveal Toronto Community Housing officials managing the message - eventually releasing a statement that there were “no mechanical issues with the elevators” - under pressure from the building’s residents, media and at least one city councilor.
But it’s still not clear who’s to blame for the elevators being out of service at 605 Whiteside Pl. when emergency crews swarmed in at about 2 p.m. following calls of a teen shot inside a stairwell.
Pronounced dead soon after arriving at St. Michael’s Hospital, Tyson Bailey became the city’s second homicide victim of the year and its first shooting fatality.
Results of an autopsy showed the aspiring high school football star’s injuries were “severe,” said the homicide squad’s Det. Sgt. Justin Vander Heyden
It’s not definitively known whether any delay in response would have made the difference between life and death for Bailey. But several discrepancies in official accounts of what happened that day leave unanswered questions about how a similar situation could be avoided.
According to Toronto Community Housing maintenance and complaint records obtained by the Star, the two elevators - which the corporation says are 15 years old - have been the source of some 50 complaints in the year leading up to the shooting.
Almost all related to the elevator being stuck - out of service with their doors both open or closed - and with passengers trapped inside several times. Most calls required maintenance work.
“This is within the normal range for high-use elevators operating in a multi-unit residential building of this type,” Toronto Community Housing spokesman Ian McConachie said in an email.
Since the shooting, Toronto Community Housing has also acknowledged wiring in the elevator used by police was found to be mistakenly reversed. In a post-shooting inspection, workers found wires controlling the “hold” and “on” functions when the elevator is placed in emergency recall were switched.
Toronto Community Housing has repeatedly said the mix-up has since been fixed and would not have affected the elevator’s ability to move between floors.
According to those on scene, the elevators were in working order when the first responders arrived.
Three police officers were the first to the building, said police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray. The officers took the elevator to the 13th floor under normal operation where they found Bailey suffering from three gunshot wounds.
When firefighters arrived, they took a key ring from a building fire safety box and used a special fire key to recall both elevators to the ground floor, as is standard emergency procedure, said fire Capt. David Eckerman.
According to a briefing note obtained from Toronto Community Housing, after the elevators were recalled, staff believed police officers took one of them to the third floor.
At this point, the document says officers “could not determine how to take the elevator out of service, and therefore the elevator remained stuck on the 3rd floor.”
Eckerman confirmed a fire key would be needed to operate an elevator that has been recalled.
Gray said a second group of officers did travel to the third floor to clear the building - as is normal in the event of a shooting - but said there was no mention of them having the key ring.
Vander Heyden also said officers debriefed at the scene made no mention of having used the keys.
It’s not clear if the second group of officers even realized there was an issue with the elevator. It was only when a third group of officers arrived downstairs that police were advised the elevators were not usable, Gray said.
The briefing note goes on to say that when paramedics arrived, the remaining elevator on the ground level was also inoperable because it was “unable to travel up” without the key ring.
No one the Star spoke with could say where the keys were when the paramedics arrived.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, EMS superintendent Kim McKinnon confirmed paramedics were forced to make the “unusual” climb up 12 flights of stairs to reach Bailey.
It was then that questions were raised about whether the elevators themselves had malfunctioned.
When a maintenance worker arrived at the highrise at 4:30 p.m., they reported in a work order that the elevator was stuck on the third floor with the doors closed. The fire recall was reset at that time and the elevators resumed normal operation. The reversed wiring was repaired on Jan. 22.
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