A man is dead after RCMP were called to deal with a person who reportedly had a rifle and ammunition at a pipeline site in northeastern B.C.
Officers were called after reports of the man having made threats toward site workers. As a result, the site was evacuated, RCMP said.
Officers with the MacKenzie RCMP and the RCMP North District emergency response team set up containment around the man’s residence.
“Officers reportedly made multiple attempts to have the man surrender, but while they were outside a bang was heard in the home,” RCMP said in a statement. “When officers entered the home one man was located deceased.”
Police did not say in which community the man lived.
The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia (IIOBC) is investigating police actions in the incident.
“As the matter is now under investigation by the IIO BC, no further information will be released by police,” RCMP said.
In February, threats were made online about damaging the TC Energy-owned Coastal Gas Link line from Dawson Creek to Kitimat.
TC Energy spokesman Justin Yee said the incident was not at a company facility.
There is also the Enbridge Sunrise expansion project underway in the region.
Pipeline threats
Threats at pipeline sites have a long history in northern B.C.
In recent years there have been protests and blockades, some of which have been subject of court injunctions and police enforcement.
In 2000, Wiebo Ludwig, leader of a Christian community at Trickle Creek, Alta., was convicted of sabotaging oil and gas wells.
Ludwig was convicted on five charges, including blowing up one well, vandalizing another by pouring concrete into it and counselling an undercover police officer to buy dynamite.
In February 2022, Coastal Gas Link alleged 20 masked people attacked a work camp south of Houston, B.C., where workers had set up operations as part of the construction of the 670-kilometre-long CGL Pipeline.
