'She didn't have to die so tragically,' Regis Korchinski-Paquet's neighbour told SIU

A neighbour broke up a fight between Regis Korchinski-Paquet and her brother hours before the 29-year-old fell to her death from a highrise balcony while police were inside the home, a coroner's inquest heard Wednesday.

Doreen Gayle, who lived next door to Korchinski-Paquet and her family, told a police watchdog agency what she remembered of May 27, 2020 in an interview less than a week after the fatal fall.

The roughly 50-minute recording was played on the second day of the inquest.

Gayle said both Korchinski-Paquet and her mother, Claudette Beals, had come by her apartment to chat and smoke in the morning.

Hours later, she told the Special Investigations Unit, Beals came back, asking her to break up a fight between Korchinski-Paquet and her 26-year-old brother, Reece Korchinski — something Gayle said she'd had to do multiple times in the past.

She didn't know what triggered the fight, but said Korchinski-Paquet often got "angry" after experiencing seizures and she'd had two that morning.

The two women rushed next door and found Korchinski had his sister in a chokehold on the bed, trying to restrain her as she struggled, Gayle said.

He told them the fight started because his sister broke his TV, she said, adding it took a few minutes to pull them apart.

"He let go of his sister and he says, 'Mom, look what's going to happen.

She's gonna go get knives' — exactly what happened," she said.

Korchinski-Paquet "went straight to the kitchen” and grabbed two knives, she said.

Gayle, who had told the family to go to her unit, stopped Korchinski-Paquet in the hallway before deciding she'd had enough, she told the SIU.

She went back to her apartment and stayed with Korchinski's girlfriend and their children, she said.

Soon after, Korchinski came in and flung a chair, breaking a lamp, she said.