The Saanich police shooting of an armed man and the subsequent deployment of a police dog was a reasonable response, says B.C.’s civilian police-oversight agency.
Police had no way of knowing the handgun the man was brandishing as he walked toward them wasn’t loaded, the Independent Investigations Office said, so it made sense for officers to consider the situation “as posing an immediate and critical threat to officers and to deploy lethal force in their defence.”
The IIO investigates police-related incidents that result in death or serious injury.
Officers took cover behind vehicles that had been stopped on the Patricia Bay Highway on April 28, 2023, when the man had raised the gun to his head as he sat in the driver’s seat, the decision said.
After he got out of the BMW SUV with the gun, an officer “fired a single rifle shot from a position across the highway and [the man] fell to the pavement,” it said.
And since the man was still moving and within reach of the gun, a police dog was released to drag him away from the weapon.
First aid was immediately provided, and the man was taken to hospital by paramedics with a single gunshot wound in his abdomen and “significant” dog bites, the report said.
The incident took place in the 4100-block of the highway near Vanalman Avenue after a traffic stop, the decision said.
The driver later told IIO investigators that he had only “partial memories” from the day of the incident and was in “a dark place” at the time.
An empty vodka bottle was found next to the SUV.
He had a medical appointment set for the evening that required temporary removal of the electronic-monitoring device he was wearing, so the device was taken off that afternoon at a probation office.
The removal meant he was required to be in regular phone contact with the probation office.
He told investigators he stopped at a friend’s house on his way home and picked up a nine-millimetre pistol he had recently purchased, then went to a liquor store and bought a 750-millilitre bottle of vodka.
The man said he couldn’t remember if he had loaded the gun, but did recall sitting in the SUV in the driveway and putting the gun to his head.
“He told investigators that he did not remember leaving the house, or anything that happened afterwards, until he woke up in hospital three days later.”
Police were sent to the man’s residence because he had not been responding to calls from the probation office. They saw the SUV leaving the area and followed it to see who was driving.
A traffic stop confirmed the driver was the person they were checking on, but he refused to get out. He then raised a gun — presumed to be the one he had picked up earlier — and pointed it at his head.
That prompted officers to back away and take cover.
The man was heard moving the sliding mechanism on the gun back and forth.
He turned the vehicle’s lights on and off and appeared to be ready to drive away.
He ignored repeated commands by police before deciding to leave the vehicle with the gun, which led to the shooting.
Not only was the shooting by police justified, but the use of a police dog to move the man away from the gun was also a reasonable choice and “was certainly preferable to further use of lethal force,” the decision said.
The office noted that the man was not able to give an account of what happened and that there were no civilian eyewitnesses.
However, it said, the evidence from police witnesses was consistent with recorded police radio traffic, the physical evidence and the nature of the man’s injuries, “and appears reliable.”
