Peel police Chief Jennifer Evans visited a woman in hospital in the middle of the night and promised her a future in policing after she had been shot by one of Evans’ officers, according to untested allegations in a $21-million lawsuit.

Suzan Zreik, 23, is suing Evans, the police services board and a number of officers. Zreik was struck by a stray bullet while in her kitchen the night of March 20, 2015, after officers began shooting at her neighbour Marc Ekamba-Boekwa outside in a Mississauga subdivision. He died of his injuries.

Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.

Zreik alleges that Evans visited her in hospital hours after she had been shot, assuring the Humber College police foundations student that she would “do whatever she could” to help with her career goals. The chief allegedly gave Zreik her business card with her personal telephone number handwritten on it.

“Evans knew at the material time the plaintiff was suffering from a gunshot wound inflicted by an officer under her command, and that any dealings with her should only be conducted by investigators of the Special Investigations Unit,” says Zreik’s statement of claim, filed in Superior Court in Brampton on Friday.

None of the allegations has been proven in court and no statements of defence have yet been filed. Peel police and the police services board declined to comment, as the matter is now before the court. Evans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit also alleges that an officer was posted outside Zreik’s hospital room and that her family was not allowed to see her. After being discharged from hospital, the lawsuit alleges, she was forced to make a statement to Peel officers at a police station in her hospital gown, though she had been led to believe that she was going to be speaking with the SIU, the province’s arms-length agency which investigates police encounters that result in death, serious injury or alleged sexual assault.

“The plaintiff asserts and the fact is that she was at the station for over two hours and that the questions asked of her in the interrogation room were geared toward exculpating the police,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The plaintiff asserts that the nature of the questions left her with the impression that the police wished her to clear them of any wrongdoing and was trying to take advantage of her and have her agree to things on video while she was in a highly vulnerable state.”

The defendants, including Evans, “knowingly and deliberately misled the SIU into believing the injuries suffered by Zreik were minor in nature so as to keep the SIU from speaking with her,” the statement of claims alleges.

When the SIU first began investigating the shooting, it initially said it was not looking at what happened to Zreik, but later said that was a mistake and that they had indeed been probing her injury as well as Ekamba-Boekwa’s death.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who also sits on the police services board, told the Star that the allegations, if true, are “extremely troubling.”

“This matter is before the courts, so there is little more I can say. However, I will note that Chief Evans has over 30 years of experience in policing and is highly respected amongst her peers. It is important that she and those in question have the same opportunity to tell their version of events and that due process is followed.”

The lawsuit also names as defendants three police officers — Branden Dary, Adam Paiement and Jennifer Whyte — who according to the lawsuit were on scene the night of March 20 and shot at Ekamba-Boekwa, 22, who was reportedly advancing on police with a kitchen knife.

Police fired 19 bullets in quick succession on Queen Frederica Dr. — 11 struck Ekamba-Boekwa and one struck Zreik, although she has never been told which officer was responsible.

Officers had been responding to a call that Ekamba-Boekwa’s mother, Boketsu Boekwa, allegedly threatened a neighbour with a knife.

With regards to Whyte, the daughter of a retired Peel police superintendent who the statement of claims describes as having “close ties” to Evans, it is alleged that she was improperly trained to use her sidearm.

Whyte “in fact failed her firearms qualification while at police college, and she should not have been deployed in public with a sidearm,” says the statement of claim.

According to the statement of claim, the officers “aggressively denied” at the scene that they had shot Zreik, and did not immediately help her seek medical treatment.

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The statement alleges that “both the officers and the EMS staff ignored her brother’s entreaties, while the (Peel police) officers with their minor injuries received full and exclusive medical attention.”

“Zreik was the last one to receive initial treatment by EMS personnel, and the last to be transported to hospital — notwithstanding her injuries were the most severe,” the statement reads.

With files from San Grewal

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