FILE PHOTO
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Province of BC
April 19, 2024 - 10:51 AM
The BC Coroners Service will convene a jury next month to examine the death of a man in a standoff with Kamloops RCMP six years ago.
Eugene Ethan Marcano, 35, was shot and killed on Sept. 14, 2018, near the Rose Hill area.
Officers were called to check on a badly burnt camper parked on private land, according to a 2019 Independent Investigations Office of BC report.
A witness told police a man appeared to be "high" around the trailer. When officers arrived, Marcano complained of "harassment" and believed they were only there to put him "in handcuffs."
His aggression escalated the situation quickly as he retreated to the trailer and emerged with a shotgun.
As they exchanged shots, one of the 45 bullets fired by police struck Marcano in the torso, killing him.
Fourteen rounds were fired from a 5.56 mm carbine, including the one that killed him. The other 31 were 9 mm handgun rounds. Eleven spent shotgun casings were found in the trailer, with many more unused shells inside. Five rounds struck the two police cruisers, both slugs and pellets.
While the report does not name Marcano, the dates provided by the police watchdog and the coroners service are the same. Kamloops This Week also identified Marcano in a 2019 story.
The officer who shot and killed Marcano was not required to, and chose not to, cooperate with IIO investigators. The officer was cleared of criminal wrongdoing when the police watchdog found the officers were acting in self-defence, within the bounds of their duties.
On May 6, a coroner's inquest will start in Kamloops in front of a civilian jury.
Their job is not to find fault, but determine the facts of Marcano's and make recommendations so similar deaths do not happen in the future.
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