The parents of the young man found dead inside his home as police foiled a mass murder plot on Valentine’s Day have written a letter to the Police Complaints Commission.
Patti Cody, James Gamble’s mother, says she and her husband want the commission to consider their extenuating circumstances, but they have yet to receive a response.
“We have so many questions,” said Cody. “We're not been given any answers.”
James Gamble, 19, took his own life after police say they put an end to his and two other’s plan to commit mass murder at the Halifax Shopping Centre.
“James was our son. We want to know what happened. We're his parents,” said Cody.
Cody and her husband are concerned about what they say is a ‘lack of communication’ with police.
They tried to complain, but were told they were too late.
“We were kind of blown away when we got the response that we had missed the deadline,” said Cody.
In Nova Scotia, the deadline to complain about municipal police is six months from the date of the incident.
“We just didn't have it in us to do it. We were hoping that we would get answers along the way and not have to go through a formal process,” said Cody.
Now, the parents have written a letter to the Police Complaints Commission, asking them to consider the extenuating circumstances of their case.
“There's just so much else to deal with in that short of time,” said Cody.
The Police Complaints Commission says the letter is being considered, and the commission hopes to provide a response within a week.
“We have rights,” said Cody. “We must have some rights.”
The family has done research and determined the statute of limitations in five other provinces is 12 months.
They're asking for changes to the law in Nova Scotia.
“Perhaps someone else, some other family won't go through what we're going through,” said Cody.
Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team has completed an investigation of the case, but the report has not yet been released.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell.
