IIO clears officers of wrongdoing in fatal shooting at Surrey, B.C., halfway house

Officers who shot and killed a wanted person during an arrest in Surrey, B.C., at the beginning of this year have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the province’s police watchdog.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. announced it had wrapped up the investigation on Thursday, with a release that stated there was no reasonable grounds to believe the Surrey Police Service officers in question had committed “an offence under any enactment” during the incident, which took place Jan. 31.

The police watchdog said it was “reasonable” that the officers believed it necessary to use lethal force to protect themselves and others during the arrest, and that the force deployed when shooting the individual, referred to as the affected person or the AP in the report, was “justified and lawful.”

According to the IIO, the incident unfolded late that January evening after officers were called to a Corrections Canada halfway house amid a report one of its residents, an inmate on conditional release, was in breach of their parole conditions.

The AP had been flagged to the attending officers as a “high-risk offender” with a history of “self-harm and assaulting staff,” the report said.

Officers had arrived at the building and knocked on the door of the AP’s unit, calling to them but receiving no response. After being granted entry by facility staff the two officers being investigated by the IIO, referred to as subject officers or SOs in the report, entered the unlocked room and found the AP standing by a bed in the corner.

Two other officers holding energy weapons also entered the room.

As the group entered, the AP pulled out a “massive knife” and said, “I’m not going back to jail,” the report said. One of the second group of officers yelled “drop the knife” while switching from his conducted energy weapon to his pistol. The two SOs had already drawn their pistols, the report said.

One of the officers discharged their conducted energy weapon at the AP but it wasn’t successful, and the AP “charged” towards the officers while wielding the knife in the air, according to the findings. Both SOs discharged their firearms, and the AP fell to the floor while still holding the knife.

Paramedics arrived to find the AP already deceased. Their cause of death was later determined to be a result of “multiple gunshot wounds” after an autopsy found they had suffered bullet wounds to the head, torso and extremities.

The IIO investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death in B.C., whether or not there is any allegation of wrongdoing by police.

In this case, the agency had put together a version of events based on audio recordings of 911 calls, police transmission and various police records, security camera recordings from the halfway house, and the statements of seven civilian witnesses, two paramedics and six witness police officers.

The report described how one interviewed witness described seeing the AP “running fully towards” the police while pointing the knife, before she heard four gunshots ring out.

The IIO report determined the investigated officers were acting in “the awful execution of their duty” when they went to the halfway house to execute a warrant for the AP’s arrest.

The use of lethal force by the officers had been necessary to protect their own safety as the AP had drawn a large knife - a kitchen knife with a blade around seven inches long - advanced towards the officers in a confined space and wielded the weapon in a “clearly threatening manner,” the report said.