(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

Police were warned a man near Prince George wanted to get shot before they showed up and did just that last spring.

A family member called 911 on March 16, telling the call taker the man was suicidal and he wanted police to shoot him, but they didn't know where he was.

Once they found him, he sprinted toward an officer while carrying a knife. He was shot and killed, according to a report from the Independent Investigations Office of BC.

The province's police watchdog found the officer was protecting himself and decided not to recommend criminal charges for the killing. No one, including the officer who shot the man or the victim himself, was named in the report.

When police were called just before 5 p.m., they tracked his cell phone and found him to be 40 kilometres south of Prince George. With a negotiator on the way, RCMP sent an emergency response team to the scene, the report said.

They knew he had a history of mental illness and suicidal ideation, going so far as to threaten officers with a knife in 2018 "apparently attempting to have them shoot him," according to the report.

He wasn't harmed that time, but told the officers he "regretted" not getting killed, the report reads.

This time he was parked on the side of Highway 97, waiting for police to get to the scene. An unmarked police vehicle drove by to confirm the location, while others were out of sight both to the north and south.

In the meantime, the family member who initially called 911 also found the man and parked behind him along the highway. They told the 911 call taker that they would take the man to the hospital and police weren't needed anymore.

Because RCMP were already there, they were "going to have to let police deal with it," the call taker replied.

The dispatcher on the phone then told officers about the family member's arrival, but also gave them the wrong location.

Unsure of how the man may react to the family member while potentially in possession of a weapon, the officers wanted to make sure the family member was safe. Police decided to approach him "low and slow" to avoid escalating the situation.

Because the dispatcher gave them the wrong location, they came up too quickly and a "low and slow" approach was impossible.

The negotiator was still on the way, so officers tried to talk him down on their own. It wasn't successful.

One told him to show his hands, and the man got out of the car slowly.

He reached into his pocket as he stood beside the car, one officer told investigators. That's when he suddenly slammed the door shut and "charged" toward an officer 20 metres away.

"And as he started running, I could see that he had a knife in his hand," the officer said. "I didn't hear him say anything, but it was an all out run."

That officer got into a police truck and tried to use it to either block or hit the man, but was too slow and the man was shot three times, while the family member who called 911 was still in the other car.

Police tried to give him first aid at the scene but the man was later pronounced dead.

"They quite properly planned to approach slowly, from a distance, using a negotiator to de-escalate the situation and bring it to a safe conclusion," IIO director Ronald J. MacDonald said in his decision. "They would have a wider range of force options available, so the use of lethal force would be unlikely."

Had it not been for the miscommunication from the dispatcher who misheard the location, a non-fatal conclusion might have been possible.

MacDonald found the man's "almost immediate" reaction to charge with a knife left the officer to focus on protecting his own life.

In these circumstances he and the other officers cannot be faulted for the man's decision to charge with the knife or for the tragic consequence of that decision, the report read.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2024