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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Karen Lander attempted to kill herself two days before a four-hour standoff last March that ended in her death, according to investigating officer Sgt. Jason Graham, who testified Monday during a coroner's inquest.

Karen Lander: Two days after her release from Stanton Territorial Hospital was shot dead after rushing police with a shotgun. - NNSL file photo

Lander was shot by police four times March 14, 2012, after exiting a house on Glick Court holding a rifle.

An inquest into her death began Monday with six jurors hearing testimony from third-party investigators Graham and Staff Sgt. Brent Secondiak, both of Medicine Hat Police Services. Two videos that Lander made were played - they showed her in a distraught state and she spoke of committing suicide.

The purpose of the inquest is for the jury to make recommendations that may prevent similar deaths in the future

Graham testified that Lander was depressed leading up to the dramatic end of her life on March 14. On that day she told the RCMP negotiator that she planned to come out of the house with a rifle so the police would shoot her, Graham recounted.

That's just what happened.

Lander was fatally shot after she approached a four-member RCMP emergency response team with a rifle above her head. She was repeatedly told to drop the gun by the officers but didn't, according to evidence gathered by the third-party investigators.

Some witnesses say Lander then pointed the rifle at RCMP, Graham said, while other witnesses say she kept it above her head. Nonetheless, three officers fired 12 rounds at her when she was about 27 metres away from them. She was hit in the chest, right side of the neck, left thigh and right arm.

No ammunition was found in the firearm that Lander was holding.

RCMP performed CPR on a fallen Lander following the shooting. She was then taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Two days prior to the incident, Graham said, Lander attempted to kill herself using a shoe lace. As a result she was admitted to hospital but was discharged the following day by doctor Anna Reid, who felt Lander posed no risk to herself, said Graham.

Later that evening Lander began talking to friends and family again about her desire to commit suicide. She told one friend she had written a suicide note and taped a suicide video.

In the first of the two videos played on Monday, which ran about two minutes, Lander is seen sitting in a bathroom, wrapped in a robe.

"I'm going to kill myself. Lost my kids, I'm losing my place. I'm never going to get my kids back," she told the camera while crying. "Nobody wants to help me ... I wonder how many people are betting if I'm going to kill myself today or how I'm going to do it?"

In the second video, which lasted about 30 minutes and was taken Feb. 29, 2012, Lander is perched on a couch in a living room once again talking about her despair over losing her two children. Her addictions, she acknowledged, got the best of her. In a profanity-laced statement, she said she messed up, spoke of living in total poverty and being unable to get ahead and said she hopes "the system" changes.

At one point in the video she grabs a white cloth and rips it to create a rope. She starts to put it around her neck when she stops, deciding she should have a drink of vodka and take a drug first.

But instead she grabs the phone to call social worker Arlene Lavoie-Stobbs. They speak and at the end of the call Lavoie-Stobbs asks Lander if she is ready to leave her apartment and where she can reach her after she leaves.

The video abruptly shuts off. On Tuesday, Lavoie-Stobbs testified that during the rest of the conversation Lander insisted she come over. After talking with her supervisor, Lavoie-Stobbs opted instead to invite Lander into the office. Lander refused.

According to Secondiak, the investigators used the video to determine Lander's state of mind prior to the incident. Investigators also found from speaking to people who knew Lander that she had threatened to take her own life a number of times before. The day before she was shot, Lander told her cousin she wanted to die and described her death the same way it happened on March 14, Graham said.

The inquest is expected to continue at the Yellowknife Inn until March 6. Coroner Garth Eggenberger is presiding over the inquest.

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