Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Ashley Legassic

ROOFTOP STANDOFF

No wrongdoing by Salmon Arm RCMP officers who sprayed standoff suspect with garden hose: IIO

Dec 4, 2019 | 10:50 AM

SALMON ARM, B.C. — The province’s police watchdog says RCMP did the best they could in trying to get a standoff suspect safely off of the roof of a home — and there was no wrongdoing by Mounties.

In a report released today (Dec. 4), the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) says the organization received a call from the man involved in the standoff in April of this year.

The incident had occurred on May 17, 2018. The man is only identified in the report as the “Affected Person” or “AP”.

“The message left by AP alleged that he had been in Salmon Arm on the roof of a house in a standoff with RCMP,” the report states. “He alleged that they sprayed him with a hose which made him fall and break something in his foot and caused many other problems.”

The IIO launched its investigation, and gathered the man’s statement, two civilian witness statements, four officer statements, medical records, and scene photographs among other things.

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Through that, the IIO learned the man had fractured his heel while in Alberta — after jumping out of a two- or three-storey building. After that he decided to drive to B.C. to turn himself in for outstanding warrants.

He drove to Vernon with his broken foot and admitted he hadn’t slept for days due to drug consumption.

The man stopped in Enderby due to a punctured tire. Emergency officials were called after witnesses became concerned about his unusual behaviour.

He was taken by ambulance to Salmon Arm Hospital. An hour after his discharge, the man reached a property on 8th Avenue in Salmon Arm, and tapped on the door screaming for helping and for someone to call the police.

“The owner of the house… told the IIO that she saw a male in her back-garden shouting to call the police,” the report states. “This made her lock the doors. She then became aware of AP climbing onto her shed and heard him on her roof.”

The witness got out of the house and told the man to get down, as he was ripping off roof tiles and throwing them down.

Two plainclothes police officers attended with police vests on, and two uniformed officers arrived as well.

“AP did not believe they were real officers,” the report states. “AP stated that the bad guys after him would pretend to be police and as the officers did not show a badge when he asked, he refused to believe them.”

Officers asked the man to come off the roof, informing him he was being detained under the Mental Health Act. AP continued to throw roof tiles.

The Emergency Response Team attended and offered assistance. Members tried to coax him down but he wouldn’t budge.

Officers put up ladders on the side of the house to help AP get down, but he was holding the shingles he had ripped off “like weapons”.

AP demanded food and officers placed a sandwich and drink in the gutter. AP went down to the food but then returned to the top of the roof.

Hours into the standoff, with several mitigation efforts already tried, a plan was devised for all officers to leave the scene apart from ERT members who would keep an eye on him. It was hoped that with no one else on scene AP would climb down the ladders.

Eventually AP started falling asleep and several times an officer had to drive by with sirens on to wake him up.

“Officers stated they now feared for AP’s safety and it was determined that the garden house option should be used,” the report states.

The hope was to make AP wet and uncomfortable so that he would come down.

An officer climbed the ladder and used his thumb to make the hose spray. Because the water pressure was low, he climbed to the top of the ladder to reach AP.

AP threw a ladder he had pulled up onto the roof toward the officers, and it hit the officer’s ladder, nearly knocking him off.

The officer told AP he would continue spraying him until AP came down, which he eventually agreed to as he was getting cold.

“(The officer) continued to spray, and as AP started to climb down again, he slipped and fell, landing astride the handrail on the side steps of the house,” the report states. “The bottom post of the handrail broke with the force of the impact, and AP landed on the ground.”

At the hospital AP was diagnosed with a fractured heel and injuries to his groin areas, but it was determined the fracture wasn’t a new injury.

“The evidence shows that AP single-handedly created the situation that eventually led to his injury. The responding police officers cannot be held responsible for the ultimate failure of their well-meaning efforts to bring him down safely,” the report states. “They deployed considerable resources in trying to bring the incident to a peaceful conclusion. Importantly, the police displayed commendable patience and restraint in the face of AP’s stubbornness and dangerous behaviour, which included assaulting an officer.”

The IIO’s chief civilian director says in the report that there are no reasonable grounds to believe an officer committed an offence in any way.