The Independent Investigations Office will not ask the BC Prosecution Service to consider charges against the RCMP officers that discharged their weapons during a standoff at a Campbell River Marina in 2022.
In the early morning hours of June 13, 2022, Campbell River RCMP responded to a report that a person had been fatally shot at the Harbour Authority marina.
It was also reported that a hostage was being held on one of the boats moored there.
It was later discovered that one person had been killed and two people held at gunpoint on a boat before being allowed to leave at different times during the ordeal.
One of the two hostages told police he had witnessed the fatal shooting and the gunman had later signed a paper transferring ownership of his boat to the hostage before releasing him.
After both hostages had left the boat, the RCMP learned the gunman had texted another person to say he would not leave the boat alive and that he had “every intention of making police do the job.”
The RCMP Emergency Response Team and the Crisis Negotiation Team had arrived at the marina and the CNT made contact by phone with the gunman, who agreed to leave the boat.
The man then looked from behind a tarp at officers on the dock, but then went into the cockpit of the boat.
In another call with the Crisis Negotiation Team, the gunman threatened to kill police officers and was then observed moving toward the dock side of the boat where the muzzle of a rifle was seen poking out beneath the tarp covering the stern of the vessel.
Upon hearing a shot, police fired at the boat and the gunman was found deceased when the Emergency Response Team boarded.
It was later determined the gunman had taken his own life, and had been hit by bullets police when fired in response to the first shot.
In its report on the incident, the I-I-O says it was reasonable for the officers on the dock to use lethal force out of concern for their own safety.
