Image credit: IIO

By Aaron Schulze

IIO

No dashcam video, gunshot wound trajectory factors in police watchdog clearing Barriere officer

Jan 8, 2024 | 11:30 AM

LOUIS CREEK, B.C. — A dashcam video malfunction and the trajectory of a gunshot wound led B.C.’s police watchdog to not recommend charges for a Barriere RCMP officer who shot an armed suspect in May 2022.

In a news release issued Monday (Jan. 8), the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of B.C. says a man was travelling with his partner on Highway 5 from Kelowna to Williams Lake, getting out of the vehicle at the side of the highway near Louis Creek. The IIO says the man gave two different statements on why he left the vehicle — one where he said he needed a “time out” from his partner and another where he said he saw a buck and got out to shoot it.

The IIO says RCMP received a call about a man being dropped off on the side of the road with an “assault-style” rifle. Two officers from Barriere drove south to the 3400-block of Highway 5 in Louis Creek where one officer shot the man in the arm.

According to the witness officer, the man racked and pointed his rifle, then put it on the ground in one motion, and the subject officer shot him once with his pistol.

The man says the subject officer came up to him close and shot him while the IIO says the man’s wound – which went through his left arm and through his chest from left to right – is consistent with him having his arm raised during the shooting.

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The subject officer only gave a partially written statement to the IIO, through his legal counsel, but didn’t provide any account or motivation for the shooting, as B.C.’s police watchdog doesn’t force officers who are under investigation to submit their notes, reports and data.

However, the dashcam from the subject officer’s vehicle did not contain any video of the shooting. The IIO says while the dashcam was turned on during the shooting, a video analysis expert determined it likely didn’t record due to the system’s hard drive being nearly full.

In his decision, Ronald MacDonald, the IIO’s chief civilian director, says while investigators lack objective evidence of the shooting, he says the medical evidence of the man’s arm being raised toward the officer during the shooting is consistent with him having his rifle raised in the direction.

“The live .22-calibre round located on the ground is also consistent with [the man] having worked the rifle’s action, possibly in an attempt to demonstrate that the rifle was unloaded by ejecting a round,” MacDonald says. “While the movement may have had that innocent motivation, it would be understandable if it was interpreted by [the subject officer] as an act preparatory to firing the weapon… [The subject officer’s] deployment of lethal force in response, therefore, was more likely than not a justified act of self-defence.”

The full report can be read here.