Shooting suicidal man with beanbag gun during Mental Health Act arrest was justified: B.C. watchdog

Investigators from B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office are seen in this file photo from the IIO.

Warning: This story references suicide and may be upsetting to readers. Anyone who is in crisis can call 988 Canada-wide.

A Vancouver police officer who shot a suicidal man three times with a beanbag gun – causing serious injury – will not face criminal charges, according to B.C.‘s police watchdog.

The Independent Investigations Office released a report into the Aug. 20, 2022, incident Tuesday, finding the use of force was reasonable and justified in the circumstances.

The man who was injured – referred to as the “AP” or “affected person” throughout the IIO report – called 911 that afternoon to report that he was having suicidal thoughts, and was holding a knife to his wrist.

Over the course of the 21-minute call, the dispatcher managed to “calm” the AP and persuaded him to put the knife down and wait in his suite for an ambulance to arrive, according to the IIO’s report.

“The recording of the AP’s 911 call demonstrates that, by the time police arrived, the AP was calm, simply expecting to be transported by paramedics to hospital for his own safety,” wrote Jessica Berglund, the IIO’s chief civilian director.

“From that perspective, it is unfortunate that instead, he was met by police officers aiming firearms at him. However, it was not unreasonable for initial contact with the AP in this case to be undertaken by police. The information they had was that there was a potential for unpredictable behaviour from the AP, and that he was in possession of an edged weapon.”

The AP admitted that he had the knife in his hands when he left his suite to meet who he thought would be paramedics.

“He said he went out into the hallway with the knife to give it to the paramedics, and to show he was coming voluntarily,” the IIO report said.

“The AP said that in the hall, he saw four police officers about 17 feet away with rifles pointed at him from behind a riot shield. He said that when he was told to drop the knife he immediately did so.”

A folding pocketknife with an eight-centimetre blade was recovered from the scene.

The officer who fired the beanbag gun did not provide a statement to the IIO. Legally, officers being investigated for use of force are not required to provide evidence to the watchdog and cannot be compelled to do so.

In order to reach its conclusion on whether the use of the beanbag gun was reasonable and necessary, the IIO considered statements from the AP, the 911 call, police records and statements from five witness officers.

There was “uncertainty” and “inconsistency” in the evidence on whether the AP dropped the knife when he was told to and if the knife was open or closed when the AP was holding it, the report said.

However, the presence of the knife in the hands of someone police had determined was arrestable under the Mental Health Act proved to be the determining factor in the IIO’s decision not to forward a report for consideration of criminal charges.

“Evidence from other witnesses supports a finding that (the officer) was facing a person who had threatened to use a knife to harm himself, who had acknowledged that he was still holding it as he exited his apartment, and who did not immediately drop it when directed to do so,” Berglund wrote.

“The officers were facing this person in a narrow hallway and would have little alternative to the deployment of lethal force if the AP were to run at them and beanbag rounds were not deployed quickly and effectively. In those circumstances, the (officer’s) decision to fire his weapon was not an unreasonable or excessive use of force.”

The report does not provide details on the nature and extent of the AP’s injuries, except to say he was struck three times and suffered a serious injury to one of his wrists. The report says the AP was given a psychiatric assessment at the hospital, but does not say whether he was detained or for how long.