Paul Boyd (animator)

Paul Boyd (September 30, 1967 – August 13, 2007) was an American-born Canadian animator. He was a member of a.k.a. Cartoon, the production team for the Cartoon Network longest running hit television series, Ed, Edd n' Eddy as a title sequence animator and director. He was responsible for creating the opening sequence of the series. He began his career working for International Rocketship on two Gary Larson specials. During his career he taught at Vancouver Film School and worked at many animation studios in Vancouver. His work directing for Aaagh! It's the Mr. Hell Show!, along with co-director Moose Pagen, was nominated for an Annie Award^[1] in 2001.

He was shot and killed on August 13, 2007, by a police officer in Vancouver. A video recorded by tourists showed Boyd being shot nine times after wielding a bicycle chain at officers who came to respond to an emotional disturbance involving him. The ninth shot that struck Boyd was fired as he was on the ground. The officer who shot Boyd was cleared in the death. The use of force was criticized by many of Boyd's colleagues and relatives.

Early history

Boyd was born September 30, 1967 in Pasadena, California. He grew up in the west side of Vancouver and attended Lord Byng Secondary School. He attended University of British Columbia and Concordia University in Montreal.^[2] Before joining a.k.a. Cartoon, during his youth, he showed an unusual gift for expression in the visual arts. For the last 15 years of his life he had a successful career as an animator, employed by a number of different animation studios in Vancouver. He was passionate about his work and it was highly regarded. According to his family and friends, Boyd was friendly, gentle, intelligent, humorous and compassionate.

Career

According to the animation industry website Cartoon Brew, other than Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Paul Boyd also worked for The Mr. Hell Show and provided animation for Gary Larson's Tales from the Far Side and the first Flash animation television series ¡Mucha Lucha!. An incomplete list of his animation credits can be found in.^[3] During the 1990s he taught many young animators at the Vancouver Film School. A prize in his honour for the top student in Classical Animation at the Vancouver Film School is funded by his family and presented three times per year. At the time of Paul's death he was working at the Global Mechanic studio. His last completed work was on two animated advertisements for the Alberta Government.^[4][5]

Illness and death

While in his twenties, Boyd was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression), an illness for which he received constant and usually effective treatment. He lived with this illness for almost 20 years.^[6]

Fatal shooting incident

During the evening of August 13, 2007, Boyd was seeking medical treatment at two clinics on Granville Street in Vancouver. Although he had taken his psychiatric medication that day, as revealed by the report of a forensic toxicologist, he was acting bizarrely, addressing strangers as friends and shouting loudly. About 9 PM, he had come to the attention of the staff and patrons at a sushi restaurant next door to one of these clinics. He mistook a patron for someone he knew, shouted at him when that was denied and then kneeled before him to apologize for his shouting. This incident resulted in a number of 911 calls whose callers recognized that he was showing signs of mental illness.

About 30 minutes later, across the street from the second of the two clinics, he approached a man sitting on a bus stop bench, again mistaking him for someone he knew, shouting at him when this was denied and then kneeling to apologize for his actions. A witness in a 6th floor apartment, seeing him kneeling on his backpack and shouting mistook his backpack for a prone man and believed an assault was taking place. The witness phoned 911 and reported an assault. Because he reported seeing the gentleman sitting on the bus stop bench, his call was reported by the 911 dispatcher as a two-on-one assault.

Two plain clothes Vancouver Police Department officers arrived on the scene in an unmarked car in response to this 911 call. They reported that Boyd was calm and that there were only two men at the scene, Boyd who had stood up from a kneeling position and a second man, still sitting on the bus stop bench and also calm. There was no third man nor any evidence of an assault having taken place. However, one of the officers reported that he saw a hammer in Boyd's hand and, without identifying himself as a police officer, drew his weapon and ordered Boyd to drop the hammer and lie down, which he did. As the other officer approached Boyd in an attempt to handcuff him, he sprang up and struck the officer on the temple causing him to fall down bleeding from a wound to the head. Early reports from the Vancouver Police stated that this officer was unconscious but the officer's evidence was that he was never unconscious and got to his feet almost immediately. Regarding the alleged hammer, at the Coroner's Inquest into Boyd's death the man who had been sitting on the bus stop bench testified that he saw no hammer in Boyd's hand. An ordinary household claw hammer was found on the sidewalk at the scene but it was not tested forensically to determine who had handled it. Although the police press release on the day after his death stated that he had struck the officer with a bicycle chain with a lock attached, there is no evidence that this was the case (see the discussion of the physical and forensic evidence in the next paragraph). The wound suffered by the officer was a scalp wound and there was no injury to the skull or sign of concussion which is inconsistent with an injury caused by a heavy swung chain. Indeed, the Criminal Justice Branch in 2010 stated that "he struck the officer with a chain or other object." There was no suggestion as to what this other object might have been. The wound was not inconsistent with a blow from a closed fist, especially from someone as muscular as Boyd.

In the meantime, two uniformed officers had arrived. Boyd grappled with one of them and then attempted to flee the scene. The other uniformed officer, Constable Lee Chipperfield, drew his weapon and began shooting. There were reports from the police, released to the media on August 14, 2007, that Boyd had begun swinging a bicycle chain with a lock attached after he struck the plain clothes officer. However, subsequent forensic DNA tests failed to show that he had been swinging this chain. The only DNA on the chain was that of the officer who had been struck. Since there was no blood or hair on the chain, it is likely that this DNA resulted from the careless handling of the evidence after the incident—without being put into an evidence bag, it was thrown into the front seat well of the unmarked police car in which the injured officer had arrived at the scene. Only one of the officers involved could describe this chain and he stated that it seemed to be "a chain-saw chain with a heavy block of metal attached". The officer who described this chain had handled it himself apparently did not understand the difference between a chain-saw chain, each of whose links has a sharp blade attached (and would cause severe cuts if handled with bare hands) and an ordinary bicycle chain. The "heavy block of metal" was a small padlock. Civilian witnesses described Boyd swinging an object variously described as a belt, a purse, a rope, or a chain, but none described the bicycle chain that the VPD had alleged he was swinging. Many of the witnesses said that the object being swung was a light object about 18" long but others described a long heavy object. Some described an object (e.g. a purse or wallet) attached to the end of a chain but others insisted that there was nothing attached to the end of the chain. There were two chains found at the scene, a loop of bicycle chain 88" in length with a 2"x2" padlock attached and a light link chain, 22" in length, described by a civilian witness and a police officer as being "made of paperclips". It was this smaller chain that the witness sitting on the bus stop bench described precisely and testified that Boyd was swinging. This smaller chain was not tested by forensic analysis to confirm or deny this.

Evidence presented at the Coroner's Inquest revealed that in the 30 minutes that Boyd had spent on Granville Street prior to the arrival of the police, he had used no weapon and committed no assault nor shown any aggression other than loud shouting.

During a period of 80 seconds, Constable Chipperfield fired nine shots in total, with eight hitting Boyd. He was the only officer to fire his weapon. Two of the first eight shots created serious wounds, one causing sufficient bleeding to soak Boyd's jeans in blood from the waist to the knees. The final shot was fired when Boyd was crawling on the street unarmed, as many police and civilian witnesses testified in interviews with the VPD homicide team and at the Coroner's Inquest. This was confirmed by some of the police officers and civilian witnesses but others, including Cst Chipperfield, testified that Boyd was attempting to get to his feet when the final shot was fired. The video evidence described below is not conclusive concerning this point since during the final second before the last shot is fired, Boyd's body is obscured by an automobile between the camera and him. At the Coroner's Inquest one of the officers involved testified that after 4 or 5 shots had been fired Boyd dropped the chain that he had been swinging and it was retrieved by this officer. This was verified by the video evidence described below which was not available at the time of the Inquest. Constable Chipperfield testified at the Coroner's Inquest that he was not aware that Boyd had been disarmed and that he would not have shot the final shot had he known this. The forensic evidence showed that this final shot struck Boyd first in the cheek and then the chest passing through his heart and leading to his death. The forensic pathologist testified at the Coroner's Inquest into Boyd's death that this shot could not have been fired when Boyd was standing erect although he conceded that it could have been fired when Boyd was attempting to get to his feet with his torso parallel to the ground. Given that Constable Chipperfield was at least 6 inches shorter than Boyd, simple geometry shows that the bullet trajectory determined by forensic analysis is inconsistent with Boyd being erect or nearly erect at the time of the final shot. Constable Chipperfield in fact gave two different conflicting accounts of the final shot, one in his Duty Report when he stated that the final shot was one fired to Boyd's head, after he had decided that Boyd must be wearing body armour. (Boyd in fact was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt). In his testimony to the Coroner's Inquest, Constable Chipperfield gave a different description of the final shot, claiming that the second last shot was one fired to his face and that he understood has gone through his face, and the last shot being one fired to his heart. It is not clear why he would have fired a final shot to Boyd's centre of mass if he indeed believed that Boyd was wearing body armour.

Investigation

The killing was investigated by the Vancouver Police Department and their findings passed on to the Criminal Justice Branch of BC which decided not to prosecute Chipperfield.^[7] After a Coroner's Inquest^[8] in December 2010 revealed many details which did not figure in the Criminal Justice Branch report, a complaint was filed by the BC Civil Liberties Association to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner alleging that excessive force had been used. In March 2012, the British Columbia Police Complaint Commissioner issued a report concluding that there was not "clear, convincing and cogent evidence ... that Chipperfield used unnecessary force or excessive force during this incident." He based his conclusion partly on an opinion provided by a use-of-force expert, Bill Lewinski, who suggested that Chipperfield could have been suffering from "inattentional blindness."^[9]

In May 2012, a video captured by a tourist's videocamera surfaced. In the video, which starts just as a burst of two shots was fired (the 7th and 8th shots), Boyd is seen crawling on the road, unarmed. In the time between the eighth and ninth (fatal) shot, an officer is seen standing near Boyd handling an object that analysis of the video showed to be a chain and throwing it to one side thus providing conclusive evidence that Boyd was unarmed at the time the fatal shot was fired. David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said that the video made it clear that Boyd did not pose a threat to anyone at the time the fatal bullet was fired. In light of the new evidence, an independent investigative agency, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), was asked by the B.C. Attorney General to review the case with the new video in consideration.^[10]

In a June 25, 2013 media statement, the Criminal Justice Branch announced that ASIRT had completed its investigation and on June 24, 2013, the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, M. Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten, had appointed a prominent Vancouver lawyer, Mark Jetté, as Special Prosecutor to decide on the basis of ASIRT's report and further investigation, if necessary, if charges would be laid against any of the officers involved in the incident. If a decision were made to prosecute then Mr. Jetté would conduct the prosecution. Ms DeWitt-Van Oosten concluded that it was necessary to appoint a Special Prosecutor to avoid any potential for real or perceived improper influence in the administration of criminal justice in reviewing the ASIRT report.^[11] The BCCLA applauded the B.C. government for their June 2013 decision to appoint a Special Prosecutor to reconsider laying charges in the Boyd case. ^[12] (In December 2010, following the conclusion of the Coroner's Inquest, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association had called for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed but this request was rejected at that time).

On October 28, 2013, the Criminal Justice Branch announced that the Special Prosecutor had decided that no charges would be laid against Constable Chipperfield in this case. Because the intent of Chipperfield's actions, i.e. to shoot and kill Boyd, was not in dispute the only charge that would have been appropriate was one of 2nd Degree Murder. However, the Prosecutor reasoned that the defense of self-defense would likely succeed because of the requirement that the prosecution establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Chipperfield knew he was shooting an unarmed and severely wounded man who did not pose a threat of death or serious injury to Chipperfield or others.^[13] Some of the police officers and civilian witnesses present at the time of the fatal shot testified that Boyd was crawling at the time he was killed and did not present a threat to any other person. Others testified that although he was crawling he did present a threat, and still others said that he was walking and upright up until the final shot. There was similar differing testimony regarding whether or not he was armed. The video makes it clear which of these many differing observations is accurate but the counterfactual testimony could still be used by the defense to attempt to establish that a "reasonable" person could believe that Boyd posed a "threat" at the time of his death. For a discussion of the meaning of "reasonable doubt", see:,^[14] where there is an extensive section concerning the meaning of the term in Canadian criminal law as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Memorial

The Ed, Edd n Eddy sixth-season episode "Look Before You Ed" is dedicated in Boyd's memory and features a memoriam at the end of the episode stating, "Paul Boyd. 1967-2007. We miss you, you big lug."

References

External links

• Paul Boyd on IMDb
• Interview with Boyd's sister, Deborah