How did Don Dunphy die? N.L. judicial inquiry to examine fatal police shooting:
More than a year and a half after Don Dunphy’s tragic shooting death, his daughter is preparing to speak publicly about it for the first time.
Meghan Dunphy will be the first witness to take the stand Monday at the inquiry into what happened at Dunphy’s Mitchells Brook home on April 5, 2015.
Don Dunphy, 59, was fatally shot by RNC Const. Joe Smyth, who at the time was assigned to a special unit handling the security of then–premier Paul Davis.
Smyth went to Dunphy’s home — about 100 kilometres southwest of St. John’s — on an Easter Sunday to investigate after a member of the premier’s staff flagged Dunphy’s social media posts on Twitter as potentially threatening.
Smyth subsequently told the RCMP that they spoke for about 15 minutes until Dunphy became angry. Smyth told police investigators he fired his service pistol at Dunphy four times after Dunphy pointed a 22–calibre rifle at him.
Meghan Dunphy grew up in the Mitchells Brook home where her father died. She was with him just hours before the fatal confrontation with Smyth.