Police actions ruled reasonable after suspect shot and killed as he drove car at officer

Photo: IIO BC

B.C.'s police watchdog has ruled RCMP actions were reasonable during a fatal Shuswap standoff in January of this year.

On the evening of Jan. 7, Salmon Arm RCMP received a complaint of serious mischief to property at a rural location north of Shuswap Lake.

Officers tracked a suspect to his residence in Tappen. When they attempted to arrest him, the man brandished a knife and an axe, and officers withdrew. The Emergency Response Team was called in, but efforts to negotiate with the man were unsuccessful.

Police deployed tear gas, according to a report by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C.

Shortly thereafter, the man exited the home and attempted to flee in his vehicle. Shots were fired, and the suspect was fatally wounded.

The initial complaint call said the deceased had repeatedly struck a trailer with an axe or similar implement.

ERT members set up outside the house about midnight and, over the following two hours, several attempts were made to communicate with the man.

At 1:55 a.m., he came out briefly with the axe in his hands, and was again told he was under arrest. He came out again at 2:22 a.m. making obscene gestures towards police. 

The report notes "as officers were engaged in delivering a ‘drop phone’ (a cellphone to facilitate direct communication) through a broken window, the man came out onto the front porch, very close to their position."

Fearing for the safety of the officers, a 40 mm ‘less lethal’ sponge round was fired, which knocked the man to the ground. He then crawled back inside the residence.

Not long after, the man came out the back of the house? and a second ‘less-lethal’ shot was fired. While the officer was reloading, the man ran to his parked vehicle. 

?As the man attempted to flee, an officer in the driveway said the car was heading right towards him. He shouted “stop the car, stop the car!” and pointed his firearm.

Another 'less-lethal' round was fired at the windshield of the vehicle as “a final warning to stop,” but the man carried on.

"The car was going right for him," another officer recalled. "The vehicle was accelerating, it was cooking, he was going fast."

Believing there was a “threat of grievous bodily harm or death” a witness officer reported hearing six to eight shots fired in quick succession.

Several officers reported they also would have fired, but were concerned about fellow officers in the line of fire.

“I honestly thought I was going to watch my teammate get run over even if he did shoot ... I don’t believe there was, there was another viable option for him to get out of the path of the vehicle.”

Three of the officers attempted life-saving measures, assisted by paramedics once they arrived about 3:30 a.m.

An autopsy found the deceased to have been struck by bullets or bullet fragments in the head, chest and forearm.

The IIO found the officers were acting in the lawful execution of their duty when they went to the man's home and attempted to arrest him. There were warrants for his arrest, and reasonable grounds to believe he had committed a crime. The deceased escalated the situation, and it was determined reasonable for the shooting officer to use his firearm to protect himself.