A former Toronto police marine unit diver testified on Tuesday about trying to help panicked passengers who were trapped in a capsized pleasure boat on the night of May 31, 2022.
Const. Todd Adams was one of the first witnesses called at the judge-alone trial for Filip Grkovski. The 41-year-old Mississauga, Ont., man is charged with two counts of impaired operation causing death, two counts of criminal negligence causing death, four counts of impaired operation causing bodily harm and four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
Grkovski was the owner of the motorized pleasure craft that struck rocks near Outer Harbour Marina on that night in May 2022, causing the boat to flip over, resulting in the deaths of 24-year-old Megan Wu of Newmarket and 34-year-old Julio Abrantes of Richmond Hill.
Adams said he was working for the marine unit when the call came in around 11:55 p.m. and made his way in a police boat toward the Outer Harbour Marina. Adams said as they approached the East Gap, he could see the boat that was flipped over. He noticed three people on shore and one man in the water, between the boat and Little Finger Island.
Adams testified he put on a dry suit and a life-jacket and jumped into the water, which was six to seven feet deep. Adams said he was able to touch the rocks and stand on them. The officer said he asked the man in the water who the owner and captain of the boat was. Adams said the man replied that he was.
Adams said he then asked the man how many people were on board. He recalled the man replied 10.
“There were six outstanding,” Adams told court.
The officer said he then heard screams coming from the boat and went over to a window in the hull of the boat that was capsized. Motioning with his hands to show the 25-centimetre, egg-like shape of the window, Adams said he saw a woman’s face right up next to the window.
“The female was screaming ‘I don’t want to die,’ panicked. I tried to calm them down, let them know we were here. I was speaking to the people inside the boat, I was able to calm them down. The woman I was speaking to said there was five people in there. Doing the math there was nine, still one unaccounted for,” Adams testified.
The officer said he told the man, who appeared to be trying to help the people on the boat, to go to shore. He then said he asked the sergeant to call the fire department.
“We needed someone to cut into the hull of the boat.”
Adams said he decided to take off his life-jacket and did some “dunk dives” to see if there was any way into the boat.
“You could see the boat’s rail was hooked on the rocks. I could see no possible way to us to go in. The back door of the boat was locked. I then went back to the window and spoke with the girls some more,” Adams said.
Adams said the fire department eventually arrived from the shore, wearing dry suits.
“They brought a saw. They cut a two-by-four hole in the hull, at which point we were able to extract four women,” he said.
Adams said after they got the four women out, he and another firefighter went back to the boat to look around for about 30 seconds. The officer said he then went back to the captain and asked who was outstanding.
“He told me one male and one female was still outstanding.”
The officer said he and another officer used metal bars on strings with hooks attached to drag along the bottom of the water in an effort to find more bodies. Adams said they spoke to the fire captain and came to the decision there was not much more they could do that night.
Covered in gasoline, Adams said he went home to change out of his dry suit and get his dive gear, believing he would be called in at first light.
After going home for half an hour, Adams said he was called back in to dive. He said when he arrived at work, they loaded the police boat and headed back out to the collision scene near outer harbour marina. A crane had been brought in to lift the capsized boat out of the water. He said once the boat was flipped over, other officers in dry suits were able to collect two bodies.
Grkovski has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues.