The mother of a 20-year-old man killed by a Victoria police officer more than a decade ago is pushing ahead with a lawsuit against the officers involved in his fatal shooting.
Rhett Mutch was shot in the neck on Nov. 1, 2014, after Marney Mutch called 911 because her son had broken a basement window to enter her Dallas Road home.
Marney Mutch first filed a civil suit in 2016 against the officers and the City of Victoria, but her claim was not valid according to the court’s rules. The city applied in 2023 to have the suit dismissed.
In March, a judge gave Mutch 45 days to amend her notice of claim to comply with the court’s rules.
Mutch has since had a lawyer take on the case and updated her civil claim.
At the time of his death, Rhett was under court conditions that prohibited him from contacting his mother or going to her home without her consent, but Mutch had invited her son to move back into the home.
He had been living with her for about four months until a few days before his death, when the two had an argument, and Mutch suggested Rhett find a new place to live.
Mutch heard her son break the basement window and was worried about confronting him because their earlier disagreement had not been resolved.
Mutch called 911, hoping for help to de-escalate the situation.
She maintains in her civil suit that she was not afraid for her safety at any point.
Mutch alleges in the suit that dispatchers inaccurately informed responding officers that Rhett was holding a knife to his throat when he was actually holding the knife to his stomach and threatening to hurt himself if she forced him to move out.
Mutch says she never told the call-takers her son was a threat to her safety or that he was holding a knife to his throat.
Mutch alleges the “false belief” that Rhett had a knife to his throat, as relayed to responding officers, influenced the police response.
Because of the incorrect information, a sergeant ordered officers to enter the home and try to de-escalate Rhett, believing he posed an imminent danger, Mutch’s suit says.
When police arrived, Rhett was sitting on the couch, holding a small, plastic-handled steak knife that his mother had bought as part of a cheap starter pack for his first apartment, she says.
Mutch left her house on the assurance of an officer that police “just wanted to have a word” with Rhett.
“She would never have left the house had she an inkling what they were about to do,” the civil suit says.
The suit says it was “immediately apparent” there was no one else in the home at that point, but officers did not communicate that information to each other.
Shortly after she left the home, Mutch heard shots.
Officers said Rhett ran at them with a knife, and an officer shot him after a beanbag shot failed to stop him.
Mutch said in an interview that she doesn’t believe Rhett ran at officers with a knife, saying that narrative is “defamatory to his memory and his character,” because it implies he was attempting to hurt or kill the officers.
“That’s so far from the truth. Rhett’s personality is not like that at all and and so he’s just not that kind of person, and it makes him sound like a dangerous person,” she said.
Mutch said the officers needed to pause when they arrived, talk to her and recognize the situation was calm.
“The whole thing was overkill,” she said.
She is seeking compensation for injuries, damages and losses she suffered, along with a ruling that will deter police from repeating the conduct that led to her son being shot in the neck and killed, and “vindication that what occurred was unlawful.”
Officers have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. and of misconduct following a review by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
A coroner’s inquest deemed Rhett’s death a suicide.
In clearing the officers, the IIO found that John Musicco, the officer who shot Rhett, did not break the law because use of force was justified given the threat of death or serious harm, and that VicPD was not criminally negligent in their decision to confront Rhett rather than withdraw and negotiate.
The IIO did not name Musicco but he was identified as the shooter during the coroner’s inquest.
However, IIO investigators raised serious questions about the actions of police, saying in their 2016 report that “significant communication failures led to different perspectives amongst different officers as to the need to immediately confront the affected person.”
Officers did not all know who was in the house as they entered. Musicco said he would have proceeded with an armed barricade and would never have entered the house if he knew Rhett was suicidal or that no one else was inside.
In a response filed in court in July, the officers named argue they “acted honestly, without malice and in good faith” in the course of their duties. They say they acted lawfully and exercised reasonable care, skill and diligence.
VicPD said in an email that the department does not have a comment on the civil suit.
“Rhett Mutch’s death was a tragic incident; however, the IIO, OPCC, and coroner all determined that our officers did not break the law as the use of force was justified. Our thoughts continue to be with the Mutch family,” a spokesperson said.
