'It's better to surrender:' A father’s desperate plea to his son revealed in inquest into death of Windsor man

A virtual coroner’s inquest seeks to find ways to prevent civilian deaths when involved with police.

Warning: Contains graphic details.

The inquest is looking into the September 2017 death of Chad Romanick, 34.

He took his own life in the garage behind his Betts Avenue home.

At the time, Windsor Police’s Emergency Services Unit, members of the province’s Repeat Offender and Parole Enforcement team and officers from the former Amherstburg Police force had surrounded his home.

They were investigating a shooting in Amherstburg early that morning, in which Romanick was the main suspect.

The victim in Amherstburg was taken to hospital in Detroit but survived the injury.

During the inquest, the jury saw an image of text messages between Chad Romanick and his late father Clare Romanick.

“I wanted to take out who helped make me this way,” Chad wrote to his father.

Shortly there after, Clare asks his son to surrender to police, who by this point had surrounded his home.

“Chad this is serious” his father texted. “They will get a warrant and come in it’s better to surrender.”

Clare Romanick was interviewed by the Special Investigations Unit, because his son died during an interaction with police.

The SIU cleared all officers of any criminal wrongdoing in the incident.

The elder Romanick has since passed away so his recorded interview with SIU was one of the exhibits during the inquest.

Romanick told the SIU his son was struggling with an addiction to illegal drugs; likely cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.

He also told investigators his son was trying to get help to get clean and to deal with his depression but accessing the care he needed proved difficult.

A sentiment echoed by Romanicks’ common-law partner, Sherry Lamas.

She told the jury Wednesday the local healthcare supports are very “fragmented”, offering an example of how an intake nurse at a hospital told them to seek out withdrawal management.

Officials at withdrawal management redirected them again to somewhere else.

Lamas hopes the jury can come up with recommendations to create mental health and addictions services under one roof.

She also hopes there is more support for people who are trying to help their loved one recover from addiction and navigate a path to recovery from mental health illnesses.

The jury in this inquest must not lay blame for Romanick’s death but rather is tasked with coming up recommendations for change that might help prevent similar deaths in the future.

It will continue Tuesday after the Easter weekend and is likely to conclude next week.