Officers have been cleared of wrongdoing in the death of a Mill Bay man who was shot five times by police attempting to arrest him in his home.
Three RCMP officers were called to the home of Chris Bloomfield on Nov. 10, 2018, after a woman who lived with him visited the Shawnigan Lake RCMP detachment and said he had drugged her and physically assaulted her. Officers decided to go to the home to arrest him, according to the report released by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C., a civilian oversight agency that investigates police-involved incidents that result in death or serious harm.
Shortly after two officers entered the home, witnesses heard yelling and several popping sounds. Bloomfield had been shot a total of five times, including two fatal shots to the chest.
The two officers who were the subject of investigation declined to be interviewed by IIO investigators and did not provide access to their notes. The IIO does not compel officers who are being investigated to submit evidence. Without the two officers’ co-operation, the watchdog could not piece together the events inside the house, because they were the only living witnesses.
After more than a year of negotiation with the officers’ lawyers, and after the IIO disclosed much of the evidence they had, the officers provided written statements through their lawyers.
The IIO report found the officers’ statements were similar to each other and “generally consistent” with the physical evidence that included ballistics reports, autopsy and toxicology reports, data from a Taser, and police records.
Based on the officers’ statements, the IIO determined a sequence of events inside the home. One officer kicked the door down and both entered the home to find Bloomfield in the kitchen holding a large knife across his body.
One of the officers attempted to incapacitate him using a Taser, but it wasn’t effective. Analysis of the Taser showed it only made partial contact with Bloomfield.
The officers said Bloomfield advanced on them, making stabbing motions with a knife. Both officers discharged their firearms.
The police watchdog’s chief civilian director, Ronald MacDonald, determined the officers were justified in shooting Bloomfield, because they faced “a very real threat of grievous bodily harm or death.” He also found they acted lawfully when they entered the home by force, because they had a warrant to arrest him.
The police watchdog also considered statements from four civilian witnesses, six paramedics and two police officers who were not the subject of the investigation.
After Bloomfield’s death, neighbours and friends gave conflicting accounts of what he was like, with some describing a calm person and others saying he struggled with his mental health and drug use, and that police had been called numerous times because of threatening behaviour.
Lehanna Green, whose son was friends with Bloomfield, described him at the time as not a perfect person, but a peaceful one. “This is why I am absolutely certain that if Chris was given the opportunity to have some space and cool down, things would have turned out very differently,” said Green.
— With files from Cindy E. Harnett
