‘There’s got to be a better way’: Family of man killed by police demanding answers

The father of a man shot and killed by Toronto police outside an east-end plaza is demanding answers, saying police failed his son and he’s seeking accountability for their actions.

It’s been a difficult week for Horst Geisler and his family. On Wednesday he received a call from his ex-wife that he says completely broke him – his son, 40-year-old Andrew Geisler, had had an interaction with police and he was dead.

Police were called to the Shoppers World Danforth plaza in the Danforth Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue area around noon on May 10 where they encountered a man armed with a knife. An eyewitness told CityNews that despite several warnings to drop the weapon, the officer shot the man who was later pronounced dead at the scene.

“What ended up happening is he shot him in cold blood. He was killed in broad daylight with people all around,” Geisler tells CityNews. “Our police officers are sworn to do the right thing for us, to protect and serve not to go into a situation and kill people.”

Geisler went on to say that his son never had a run-in with police before, explaining he had been struggling with alcohol addiction and that he was on a waiting list for the last year trying to get some help.

“I got a good boy, a good kid that got killed for nothing. He was a good gentle soul who never hurt anybody in his life never,” said Geisler.

Asked if the system failed his son, Geisler says “Definitely.”

“It failed a lot of people not just my boy. We have to do something about that. Toronto is a big city, there’s a lot of people with issues like that. What are you going to do go around and kill everybody?”

The province’s Special Investigations Unit is now looking into the shooting. The police watchdog gets involved anytime the conduct of police officers results in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

Geisler has been in touch with the SIU but hasn’t been given much information. He says his son’s death was not justified and he would like to see real accountability from the SIU.

“I told the SIU the same thing. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that people that where the uniform and that are more or less trained to deal with situations like this and come across this stuff everyday, the only answer they got is to pull their gun out and kill people. There’s got to be a better way.”