Independent investigation underway into fatal police shooting

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It will be another six to nine months before we know whether charges will be recommended against a Vancouver Police officer involved in a deadly shooting Saturday.

The Independent Investigations Office is handling the case but saying very little as it tries to figure out what happened.

Officers were called to the intersection of 41st Avenue and Knight Street after getting reports of a distraught man shouting and waving a 2×4.

They asked him to put it down, he didn’t listen and after using less lethal bean bag rounds, Constable Brian Montague explains they shot him.

“Less lethal rounds are not always going to work, they’re not 100 per cent effective all the time. Anytime we use a level of force — they are decisions that are made in a split-second under difficult circumstances many times. I can tell you that we respond to many calls of individuals that are armed or are threatening in nature and those are resolved safely for the most part.”

There are few details being released about the 51-year-old man who was killed at this time.

“It’s never an easy decision for our officers to use potentially deadly force. But when a situation arises and an officer feels that his life or the life of a fellow officer or of someone in the public is in danger, unfortunately sometimes the use of deadly force is necessary,” adds Montague.

Kellie Kilpatrick with the IIO says they’ll spend the next few days speaking to witnesses, going over surveillance footage from the area and eventually interviewing the responding officers.

“It’s standard protocol for officers to be separated from one another. It allows them time to write out their notes from their recall after an incident like this takes place. And they typically don’t discuss their information with one another until after the interviews have been completed,” she explains. “I can’t tell you how many officers were involved, sometimes it’s one officer, sometimes it’s as many as six to eight, so, we’ll be working on that through today and the over the next couple of days.”

The IIO is also looking to speak with witnesses that were in the area, you can call 778.988.1041.

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