FILE PHOTO

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

The BC police watchdog has said that a Kelowna RCMP officer who shot a man in a porta-potty who was threatening to kill himself did nothing wrong.

According to an Aug. 26 Independent Investigations Office of BC report, the RCMP officer involved shot the man in the leg two hours after the first 911 call came in.

"The (man) had to be stopped before somebody got hurt. It was reasonable, necessary, and proportionate for the (RCMP officer) to take one shot at (him) at that point," Interim Chief Civilian Director Sandra Hentzen said in the report. "Fortunately, the shot landed in (his) leg, and he survived his injury."

The police watchdog's report said the incident happened last October on Olalla Road in West Kelowna. The report does not name the RCMP officer or the suspect.

The report said police first got a call about the suspect shortly after noon from a neighbour saying they'd heard gunshots.

The suspect later admitted to investigators he'd fired two shots into the ceiling while in a drug-induced psychosis and feared people were trying to kill him.

A friend of his said the suspect was in a "state of panic" and was "screaming and erratic" and threatening to kill himself.

The friend tried to keep him in the house, but he left in a vehicle.

Soon afterwards more 911 calls came in.

One motorist said the suspect had pointed a gun at him and a second call reported his vehicle had crashed into a fence.

When an off-duty firefighter went to help the suspect he told them to leave, pointed the gun to the side of his head and said "I'm gonna do it."

More witnesses called the police saying a man was wandering around with a gun to his head.

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The suspect told investigators he then saw a porta-potty and decided to go inside and smoke crack.

He then put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

"He (said) that he was smoking crack at the same time he fired the gun because he felt that if he was going to die, he may as well die while smoking crack," the report said.

Amazing the shot missed his head and the gun jammed.

By this point, multiple RCMP officers had surrounded the porta-potty telling him to put the gun down and come out.

He told the officers if they came near him he would kill himself and continued to yell and shout profanities.

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In a video taken by a neighbour he can be heard saying "kill me... kill me... kill me now."

At one point he came out of the porta-potty with the gun pointed to his head, and was told to drop the gun. He didn't and went back inside.

He came out again, this time with the gun in one hand pointing at his head, and the crack pipe in the other.

He was then shot by the RCMP officer.

The BC police watchdog has a mandate to investigate all incidents that result in serious harm or death.

The watchdog said it was reasonable for police to think the suspect could have shot an officer or a member of the public.

"They could not simply stand down from a situation where the (suspect) was armed with a gun and walking around a residential neighbourhood, having pointed it at other people in the hours prior to the encounter. Nor could they let (him) shot himself," the report read.

Ultimately, the report concluded officers couldn't "wait and see" whether the suspect would point the gun at someone else and that the officer's use of force was justified.

The suspect needed surgery for the gunshot wound to his leg.

There is no mention in the report as to whether he was convicted or not.

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