VICTORIA — A Vancouver Police officer will not be charged over a fatal shooting in a city rooming house in May 2022.
The British Columbia Prosecution Service says in a statement the shooting happened at the Patricia Hotel in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside shortly after staff called 911 to report a resident assaulting others with a stick.
The service says the man appeared to be experiencing drug or mental health issues and he later produced a knife, information that was relayed to the three officers who then found the man in a hallway holding the weapon.
The service says one of the officers raised a beanbag weapon and told the man to drop the knife, but he did not comply, prompting police to shoot three beanbag rounds before another fired three rounds with their firearm.
It says the man fell to the floor after being shot and officers handcuffed him and provided first aid, but he was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. had determined there were reasonable grounds to believe an officer may have committed offences, but the prosecution service says it found the evidence didn't meet its charge assessment standard and there was no substantial likelihood of a conviction.
There was "good quality" surveillance footage capturing relevant events at the hotel, the service's overview says.
The knife the man was carrying measured about 22 centimetres long and he was holding it with the blade extended towards police, it says.
The officer who used their gun was acting as "lethal overwatch" for the other officers and fired "almost simultaneous to" the first beanbag shot, it says.
The statement says the officer had no ability to retreat or otherwise create distance from the man in the hallway, which was an enclosed space, and the suspect would have been able to reach the officer within "half a second."
It concludes there was an objectively reasonable basis for the officer to believe the man posed a risk of harm or death, and the decision to use lethal force was necessary, reasonable, and proportionate in the circumstances.
Based on the evidence, the service says there was no substantial likelihood that the Crown could disprove at a trial that the force used was legally justified.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2025.
The Canadian Press
