IIO report finds no offence committed by RCMP in response to 2020 New Aiyansh incident

"Accordingly, as the Chief Civilian Director of the IIO, I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment and therefore the matter will not be referred to Crown Counsel for consideration of charges" -- Ronald Jm MacDonald, QC, Chief Civilian Director, Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia

The case file has been closed into an October incident in the community of New Aiyansh, with the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia releasing their report into the events of October 13th when members of the RCMP attended the scene of a stabbing in the community.

The background to the incident can be reviewed from our blog item of October 15th of last year.

The four page report provides the details of the IIO investigation which was required as the death occurred in connection with the actions of police officers who responded to the call for assistance. 

That after the deployment by a responding member of a Conducted Energy Weapon to subdue the assailant who was harming himself with garden shears, he later would be pronounced deceased following transport to the community medical centre.

The report states that 

"In these circumstances, (the subject officer) was acting lawfully, in execution of his duty, the he attempted to arrest (the affected person). In addition to holding a weapons, the Subject officer was aware that the affected person had just stabbed his father and was arrest able for aggravated assault. The lawful authority for (the subject officer) to arrest the (affected person) is not an issue in this case" 

The report which you can review in full here, explores all of the events that led to the incident, from the first call to 911 through to

As part of the IIO review, the investigation included the following:

Statements from five civilian witnesses

Statements from one witness police officer

Police Computer-aided Dispatch and Police Records Information Management Environment records

Audio recordings of 911 callas and police radio transmissions

CEW examination and reports

Review of Autopsy Report

The main focus of the findings involves the use of force, that by way of the CEW device  in this circumstance and in that, the IIO investigate noted that: 

Due to the safety concerns, it wold not have been appropriate for the Subject Officer to get closer to the person in question in an attempt to get the garden shears away from him.  It was both necessary and reasonable in these circumstance for his compliance to be obtained by the use of the CEW to reduce the risk to bodily harm that would otherwise have been faced by the Subject Officer, person in question and potentially to the public if the person in question had escaped.

The report was posted to the IIO website at the end of March.

More of our notes on the work of Emergency Responders across the Northwest can be explored here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.