Image Credit: Independent Investigations Office

By James Peters

Officer-Involved Shooting

IIO clears RCMP sniper who killed distraught, armed Lytton man

Oct 20, 2020 | 11:11 AM

LYTTON, B.C. — A report from B.C.’s police watchdog says RCMP officers who shot and killed a distraught man in Lytton only considered lethal force as a last resort.

The Independent Investigation Office’s (IIO) report into the January 13 shooting death was released Tuesday (Oct. 20).

It describes a carefully orchestrated and executed plan of ‘suicide-by-cop’ on the part of the Lytton resident.

Witnesses told the IIO that the man had been “smoking marijuana heavily” and his behaviour had deteriorated before he called 9-1-1 early on the morning of Jan. 13.

The man had a loaded shotgun with him and fired it from the house, above the heads of the first responding RCMP officers.

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Later, after Emergency Response Team officers began to arrive at the home, the man told a 9-1-1 dispatcher he intended to exit out the front door with the shotgun at precisely 2:06 p.m., and asked politely for “six shots in my body please.”

He carried through with his plan almost exactly as he said he would, leaving the house just before 2:05 with a loaded shotgun.

RCMP snipers told the IIO they concluded it was a “super, super high risk” situation. A sniper disabled the man with a single shot, and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

In issuing his report, IIO Chief Civilian Director Ronald McDonald said it was “not unreasonable” for the sniper “to decide that the use of lethal force was necessary and proportionate to the risk.”

McDonald did not refer the matter to Crown counsel for charge consideration.

Read the full report here.