Shocking body camera images show how Toronto Cops has wrongly shared the case of a victim of a domestic violence, of which prosecutors say they eventually resulted in her murder.
Daniella Mallia, 23, called the police on 15 August 2022 to her apartment complex to ask for a street ban against her ex-boyfriend, Dylon Downman, with whom she had had in an on-and-off relationship for five years, the Toronto -star reports.
She then showed agents sang Youb Lee and Anson Alfonso SMS messages that she said Dowman had sent her, including: “You are still breathing because I say that” and “don't come back from death.” You are ready. '
But after reading some of the messages, Alonso tells Mallia that it “sounds like you are turning it on,” as Lee claimed it is a “he said,” situation.
Three days later, Mallia was shot in an underground parking garage.
Public Prosecutors now say that Dowman took a Uber out of the house that he rented to the parking lot on the morning of August 18, 2022 and fired several shots, with officers, according to Global News, found six editions in the vicinity of her body.
Dowman would then have fled the scene via a bus and went to a nearby shopping center.
He is now on trial for murder of the first degree in the death of Mallia, which he has not argued guilty.
Daniella Mallia, 23, called the police on 15 August 2022 to her apartment complex to ask for a street ban against her ex-boyfriend, Dylon Downman
Dowman is now on trial for Mallia's first degree murder, to which he has not argued guilty
On Monday, the jury saw the camera images of the body carried by the police, in which Lee and Alfonso could be seen to scroll on Mallia's phone through the threatening text messages.
After Alfonso argues that it seems as if Mallia 'turns on' the situation, Lee asked why she contacted Dowman after he told that he had to stop contacting her.
“Because I told him that I give you this last chance to erase your name,” Mallia, who was clearly annoyed by the situation, told the officers.
'Get out and leave your peace and leave me to mine. But he doesn't listen, “she said.
Alfonso then told her that she should get a statement from her because he described the evidence that he was being presented as a “he said,” she said “scenario.
“He talks to you, gives your threats and you adjust him again,” the agent said.
“It would be different if you just cut it and call us directly,” he explained. “Unfortunately, this is the circumstance in which we are now.”
Yet the officers told Mallia to keep her door locked and call 911 if Downman ever appeared.
Camera images of the body worn by the police show that Mallia was clearly distraught when she spoke to officers on August 15, 2022
She shared threatening SMS messages that Dowman would have sent her, but officers claimed it sounded like she “turned on” the situation, of which they said it was a matter of, “he said,” she said “
They asked Mallia to give them a formal explanation, but they hesitated while she was wondering if that meant that Dowman would be criminal.
“I am not the type to place a black man behind bars,” she tells the officers.
“I don't want to do this, I never wanted to do this, I only did it because I don't feel safe.”
But Lee told her that Dowman would not receive any charges for her report and claimed that 'now by the appearance … you also played some role, so it is like' he said, she said. '
“So now it is really a gray area,” he said, continued to insist on Mallia to issue a formal statement in case the police later decide to submit criminal charges against him and noted that even there Without a statement, there was, there was still a possibility that Dowman can be charged.
“We recommend that you provide us with a statement for your safety,” he said.
“It is not about placing another black man behind bars, it doesn't matter, you have the right to live in peace.”
But Mallia claimed that she would rather just get a house ban – known in Canada as a peace binding – to prevent Dowman from contacting her.
Former Constable Sang Youb Lee later guilty of the charges
At that time the officers told her that she had to go to the courthouse, and encouraged them to proceed immediately and tell the staff that she had already spoken to the police.
But before they let her go, Lee asked Mallia why she is so afraid that Dowman could kill her.
“I know him and I know in the last five years,” she replies, her voice omitted.
“I don't want to deal with it anymore.”
She told the agents that she would “get my peace binding and be over with this S *** because I am tired,” but it is unclear whether she ever got a limiting order.
In her interaction with the police, Mallia described how she was afraid Downman would kill her
Lee then concluded the interaction by telling Mallia that they should call Dowman to give him a chance to talk and also get his side of the story, “while he encouraged Mallia to stop contacting him.
Later that day Lee Emails sent to both Mallia and Dowman and repeated his message to stop contact with each other.
Alfonso also communicated that message to both parties by telephone, Lee testified.
'This is a written caution [cease] All forms of contact with him and continue with your life, “Lee wrote in the e -mail to Mallia.
'If you don't do this, you can be arrested. Both you and Dylon are topics of criminal intimidation. '
Dowman responded that evening to the e -mail and told him that Mallia will continue to contact him and admitted that he is lying to the police, De Ster reports.
Lee then said he should block Mallia on his phone.
She was shot in an underground parking garage three days later
Jury members also saw surveillance images of a man, presumably downman, who approached Mallia from behind an apartment building on August 18, 2022 – three days after she spoke to the police.
In that video the man was able to grab her by the neck and drag her to an underground parking garage, where the two seem to argue.
Soon the man gets a gun from a backpack and blocks Mallia's path to escape before he opens the fire.
“Members of the jury, this is not a complicated matter,” said assistant crown lawyer Maureen Peckknold in her opening statement.
She argued that public prosecutors would prove without reasonable doubt that Dowman had thought at least three days to kill Mallia, had planned it and told her how he was going to do it.
But Dowman was not the only one who was charged after Mallia's death, with the Toronto Police Professional Standards Unit Lee and Alfonso charged misconduct related violations for their handling of the case.
In police documents that describe the misconduct obtained by CBC, the professional standards of standards claimed that the officers did not take action to protect Mallia despite the fact that he had arrested Dowman to make a threat.
It said that the couple spoke with Dowman for only three minutes and warned him to stay away from Mallia and that they “had wrongly considered the matter to be a,” he said, “she said. '
Lee later admitted that he “damaged the evidence presented to him” and considered you the matter as one of “mutual intimidation.”
He also failed to inform his supervisor of his interaction with Mallia and neglected to officially identify the call as a case of domestic violence, against the police protocol of Toronto, which should be set in cases of intimate partner violence as there is sufficient evidence.
“Officer Lee's actions were the absence to do his duty to act on information and evidence provided by the complainant,” said the facts.
“His behavior was a substantial deviation from what is expected of a reasonable police officer in these circumstances.”
Lee eventually argued guilty of the charges of the Duty Police Act, and Chief Inspector Taufic Saliba ruled that he would be relegated by one year at least a year and must complete a further training that the Toronto police consider.
Alfonso's hearing has since been delayed.
