A civilian witness and “medical information” led B.C.’s police watchdog to determine there was no wrongdoing by Kamloops RCMP while responding to a mental-health call in October in which a man was seriously injured.
On Oct. 24, shortly before 4 p.m., Mounties went to a home in the 2000-block of Pacific Way in Aberdeen in response to a report that a man was behaving erratically and in possession of a weapon.
According to releases from the BC RCMP and the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIOBC), the man had been making threats of violence.
Mounties said when officers attended his residence, the man came outside, holding a weapon and yelled obscenities at police.
The nature of the weapon has not been disclosed.
Police attempted to negotiate with the man for several hours as he continued to move in and out of the home. He was detained about 4.5 hours after police arrived, with officers using “less-lethal force options” to take the man into custody after getting him to leave the abode, according to the IIOBC.
“Shortly before being taken into custody, the man sustained a self-inflicted injury,” a release from the IIOBC stated. “Medical information and a civilian witness confirm that the only injury the man sustained that meets the threshold for serious harm as defined by the Police Act was self-inflicted.”
Following a review of the evidence, IIOBC chief civilian director Ronald MacDonald has determined officers are not responsible for the man’s injury, noting the agency’s investigation into the incident has now been closed.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC is the Independent civilian oversight agency of the police in B.C. It investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, regardless if there is any allegation of wrongdoing.
