Deliberate hyperventilation technique linked to mental break before police standoff

Residents in Chilliwack posted photos on social media of a house fire that erupted after shots were fired during a police incident on May 22, 2023.

CHILLIWACK — A British Columbia man who began to deliberately hyperventilate himself daily before suffering a mental breakdown was sentenced to four years in prison last month after shooting at police in a 2023 standoff.

A psychological assessment found Daniel Hackl’s breakdown was likely triggered by “holotropic breathwork,” a therapeutic practice involving heavy, rapid breathing exercises that can exacerbate certain mental health conditions.

The sentencing ruling released this week says Hackl’s friends and family had worried about his mental health in the weeks leading up to the May 2023 confrontation with RCMP, in Chilliwack, B.C.

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The ruling says an emergency response team went to Hackl’s home for a wellness check and surrounded the residence to try to coax him out, but Hackl fired three gunshots at two officers.

It says the officers had a ballistic shield and weren’t seriously injured, and eventually set Hackl’s home on fire to end the standoff with the goal of arresting him, killing him or having him “perish in the fire.”

The ruling says that when Hackl came out of the home as it was engulfed in flames, he was naked except for body armour, and he surrendered to the police “while laughing.”

The ruling says Hackl’s mental state improved while being medicated, and a psychologist’s assessment found that his mental health crisis was most likely triggered by the holotropic breathwork he took up around the time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2026.