Police cleared of wrongdoing in shooting death at Campbell River marina
CTV
British Columbia's police watchdog says a man who was shot multiple times by officers with the emergency response team in Campbell River last year was already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the time police opened fire.
British Columbia's police watchdog says a man who was shot multiple times by officers with the emergency response team in Campbell River last year was already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the time police opened fire.
The ERT was called to the Discovery Harbour marina in the early morning hours of June 13, 2022, after Campbell River RCMP officers were told the man had shot and killed someone on another boat and had taken a hostage on his own vessel.
Officers found the body of one person with apparent gunshot wounds on a boat in the marina and saw there were lights on inside a boat belonging to the suspect.
At around 2 a.m., a man exited the suspect boat and met police on the dock, telling them be had been held at gunpoint "for hours," and the suspect was now alone on the boat, according to a report from the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. released Monday.
Mounties took up containment positions around the boat until ERT officers arrived to relieve them.
Some ERT members waited behind a wooden dock pilings approximately 15 metres from the boat while a crisis negotiator spoke with the suspect via telephone.
The rear deck of the vessel was obscured by a black tarp, preventing officers from clearly seeing inside, even as daybreak arrived, the IIO said.