SURREY, B.C. - A martial arts instructor who teaches self defence in Surrey, B.C., says he told his students to dive for cover as two police officers surrounded a man and started shooting just outside his warehouse studio.
Oneal Mendoza said Wednesday he heard a car come to a screeching halt before a driver apparently started ramming some bins as police cruisers boxed in his car.
Mendoza, who could see the confrontation through his large studio door, said he heard an officer telling the man to stop before he fired about eight shots.
He said an officer then ran toward the suspect and yelled that he still had a pulse.
Mendoza said the incident occurred at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night and that he initially thought police were conducting some kind of drill.
Sgt. Peter Thiessen of the Surrey RCMP detachment said four police officers were at the scene to conduct surveillance on an unrelated investigation when they ran the licence plate of a car that turned out to be stolen.
"When they identified themselves and approached that vehicle he began ramming the police vehicles in an attempt to flee," Thiessen said.
He said the man was shot once in the "neck-head area." The man, identified as Kenneth Keith Baines, died in hospital Wednesday afternoon.
Thiessen said Baines, 46, was known to police.
Investigators from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are now handling the case because it was a police-involved shooting.
