Warning: This article discusses gun violence, drug use and self-harm and may be upsetting to some readers.
Additional information has been made public after a shooting involving an RCMP officer and a man experiencing a mental health crisis in West Kelowna in October 2023.
The shooting took place on Skyline Road in West Kelowna when an officer fired their gun, leaving bullet holes in the porta-potty where a man who was evading arrest hid from police. After being shot the man apprehended and taken to hospital.
After a nine-month investigation, on June 14, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), which serves as a police watchdog agency, released the results of its investigation into the incident, clearing the RCMP officer who fired the shots of any wrongdoing. At the time of the IIO's announcement, few details of the incident were made public as a criminal trial related to the shooting and arrest was proceeding through the courts.
On August 26, the full written decision made by the Chief Civilian Director of the IIO was released to the public.
The report states that on Oct. 18, officers were called for numerous reports of shots fired and that a man had what appeared to be a machine gun. The first caller reported that she heard gunshots and she saw a man on the street pointing a gun at homes at 12:09 p.m.
The man had been staying with a friend at a nearby home and was experiencing psychosis while on drugs. He admits to having fired two shots into the ceiling of the home where he was staying but could not explain why to the IIO investigators. While psychotic, the man believed he was in danger and that people were trying to kill him. He later told police that he had no intention of harming others.
The next call to the police came at 12:21 p.m. from a driver who was stopped at a red light when a man with a gun began honking and yelling behind him. The caller said the man also pointed a gun at him. RCMP and the Emergency Response Team were dispatched to the calls.
Then the man crashed his vehicle into a fence at some point between 12:21 and 12:55 p.m.
When firefighters approached his vehicle after the collision the man reportedly pointed a gun to his head and told the first responders that he intended to harm himself.
The man walked away from the collision and police had to locate the man who was on foot in the neighbourhood.
At 1:01 p.m. and then again at 1:11 p.m. police received calls from witnesses that a man with a gun was in their neighbourhood.
The man then entered a nearby porta-potty with the purpose of doing drugs, stated the IIO release.
At 1:23 p.m. police located the man and told him to put the gun down and exit the potra-potty as he was under arrest. The man refused to comply and officers report they could hear a gun being repeatedly racked. The man later told investigators that he had attempted to discharge the gun but it jammed.
From inside the porta-potty, the man told police and Emergency Response personnel that he intended to harm himself and anyone that came near him. Emergency Response vehicles and officers were positioned around the man who remained inside the porta-potty in the residential neighbourhood.
At 1:47 p.m. the man exited the porta-potty and again was told to drop his weapon. When he failed to comply an officer shot the man in the thigh. As he fell to the ground, the man's own firearm discharged into the ground.
The man was then taken to the hospital and received care for the gunshot wound and a fracture to his right hip. The man survived the injuries.
"Officers have a duty to protect life. They could not simply stand down from a situation where [a man] was armed with a gun and walking into a residential neighbourhood... Nor could they let [the man] shoot himself," read the report.
The Chief Civilian Director of the IIO ruled that the officer who fired their gun did not commit an offence as the man posed a threat to the public.
