Inquest into death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet hears from police

A coroner’s inquest into the death of a Toronto woman who fell from a 24th-floor balcony while police were in her home is hearing from one of the officers called to the incident.

Const. Shane Beaudoin told the inquest into Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death that he volunteered to serve as backup when dispatch put out a high-priority call for an assault involving knives on May 27, 2020.

He says he met an officer from a different division outside the building and the two of them went up together after a resident let them in.

Beaudoin says there was a lot of information coming at them and it was hard to know who the primary aggressor was, and the fact that it was a family dispute made matters “more murky.”

He says he heard before arriving that Korchinski-Paquet had experienced seizures earlier in the day, but only learned about postictal delirium through the inquest.

An agreed narrative read at the inquest last week said Korchinski-Paquet had a history of seizures from epilepsy and often experienced confusion, “physically and verbally abusive behaviour,” and temporary amnesia afterward.

A neurologist who did not treat her but examined her records testified that Korchinski-Paquet on several occasions showed symptoms in keeping with postictal delirium or postictal psychosis — both altered mental states that can follow seizures.