'He was worthy of our love': Inquest begins into death of Windsorite who was struggling with depression and addiction

The inquest has begun into the death of a Windsorite who was struggling with depression and addiction.

When Chad Romanick, 34, died on September 15, 2017, he was under arrest for attempted murder in Amherstburg, a jury heard Monday.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains graphic content

“Chad Romanick was a good man who made the wrong decision,” Sherry Lamas, Romanicks’ spouse told the jurors. “I know that if he had known how it would have turned out, how his family have grieved his loss, he would have made a better choice.”

A virtual inquest into the circumstances surrounding Romanick’s actions and his death started Monday and is expected to last for at least six days and hear from 12 witnesses.

Inquest counsel Roger Shallow offered the jurors a summary of what happened on Sept. 15.

According to Shallow, Romanick shot a man in the chest with a shotgun around 2:30 a.m. at a home on Sandwich Street in Amherstburg.Amherstburg police investigate a shooting on Sandwich Street in Amherstburg, Ont., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2017. (Christie Bezaire / CTV Windsor)

The jury learned Romanick’s truck was identified by witnesses, leaving the scene of the shooting.

Shallow said investigators “conducted a number of background checks” on Romanick “as a matter of course in order to affect an arrest in the safest way possible.”

Through their investigation, Shallow said the OPP, Windsor Police and Amherstburg Police learned where Romanick lived - on Betts Avenue in Windsor.

“They had reasonable grounds to arrest Chad Romanick for attempted murder and they were in the process of trying to do so,” Shallow said when officers then “contained the area around his residence and also set up a perimeter” before trying to communicate with him.

Officers tried to speak with Romanick through calls and text messages to his cellphone, as well as using a megaphone and police horn to get his attention inside the home.

Shallow told the jury around one o’clock in the afternoon, “some of the officers heard a gunshot from inside the garage.”

Approximately two hours later, officers entered the garage and found Romanick “had shot himself in the head,” according to Shallow.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) ultimately cleared all police officers involved of any criminal wrongdoing, but their findings are “irrelevant” to the inquest itself, co-inquest counsel Philip Tsui told the jurors.

They are expecting to hear evidence about two previous interactions – in July 2017 and three days before his death – between Romanick, police and local hospitals.

In both cases, the jury learned Romanick sought the assistance of a Community Crisis Centre social worker for mental health concerns and addiction.

Shallow told the jury they will also learn about how local mental health services have changed since September 2017 at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital and Windsor Police Service.

“No one decides, when they get up in the morning ‘Today, I want to become a drug addict and lose everything I love’ and neither did Chad,” Lamas told the jury, describing him as “gentle and patient and thoughtful.”

“He was proud, too proud, and maybe that’s what lead to the downward spiral. He didn’t want to believe he was depressed. Why would he be? He had everything that he wanted. He thought he could fix this himself and didn’t ask for help until he was well into his addiction, and he became someone else,” Lamas said. “People always asked why I stayed. I stayed because he was worthy of our love, worthy of our help and worthy of a chance to help himself.”

According to previous CTV News coverage, the victim of the shooting in Amherstburg survived his injuries.