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Salmon Arm  

No charges against cop

British Columbia's police watchdog says no charges will be recommended against a Mountie who shot and injured a man as he appeared to drive his pickup truck toward another officer.

The Independent Investigations Office says in a report that the owner of a car wash called police shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2017, when a man broke into a coin box at his business in Salmon Arm.

The office says the owner was watching a remotely monitored closed circuit live feed that showed a man washing his pickup truck and then accessing a coin box.

The report says the man, who was not named, told office investigators that he had outstanding warrants for his arrest and tried to escape by going around one of three police cruisers.

The report says the officer who fired at the truck reported that he tried to protect his fellow officer from possibly being killed by the oncoming vehicle.

The chief civilian director Ronald J. MacDonald says 14 bullets struck the man's truck and that his injuries included a head wound, but the evidence shows the officer was justified in firing his weapon.



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