Asked to describe Brandon Duncan, people who knew him are quick to find words.
Soft-spoken. Appreciative. Kind.
“He was a great guy,” said friend Cherry Smith.
But there was another side to the 36-year-old as well, one that kept his circle of friends small.
For many years, he had suffered from Crohn’s disease.
It’s a disease that affects the intestines, and can cause anything from abdominal pain and cramping to weight loss.
In Duncan’s case, it repeatedly landed him in hospital.
“He was never without pain,” said Jack Schweitzer, who came to know Duncan through the Fresh Start Housing Centre, where he works as a manager and where Duncan would sometimes visit in search of housing.
“He was always kind of shy and embarrassed about his disease. He couldn’t continue his life because he was back in the hospital, getting another operation on his intestines.”
In addition to Crohn’s disease, friends say, Duncan had in recent years developed issues around depression and addictions.
“He didn’t like talking to people … but the few he did let in, he would just tell you everything,” Smith said.
Duncan was identified Monday as the man shot and killed by police last week, inside the emergency room of Guelph General Hospital.
Details of exactly what happened prior to the shooting – the first in the history of the Guelph Police Service – remain under investigation by the SIU.
What is known is that two officers fired their weapons, and that Duncan received multiple gunshot wounds.
Witnesses told CTV News they saw a woman run out of the hospital moments after gunshots sounded, bleeding and claiming that her boyfriend was attacking her.
The SIU has assigned 12 investigators to the case.
Schweitzer said he last saw Duncan several weeks ago, at Fresh Start, and recalled him looking frail due to weight loss.
“I don’t think he was in very good shape,” he said.
The officers who fired their weapons in the emergency room have since returned to work, albeit with modified duties.
