WATCH: People claiming to be with the hacker group “Anonymous” are commenting about Thursday’s deadly police-involved shooting in Dawson Creek. John Daly reports.
The man who made a disturbance at a Site C open house in Dawson Creek was not the person fatally shot by RCMP outside the building later that evening, say the Independent Investigations Office.
“The individual who was causing the disturbance left the event and did not come into contact with police,” said IIO spokesperson Kellie Kilpatrick at a press conference in Dawson Creek this evening.
“We know now that when police arrived in response to that complaint, they came into contact with a second adult male unrelated to the public information session.”
“The male came into contact with officers in an aggressive manner, and despite officers demands and commands, he was shot.”
He has now been identified as James Daniel McIntyre, aged 48, a resident of Dawson Creek.
The shooting happened outside the Fixx Urban Grill at the Stonebridge Hotel on July 17, while a public information session on the soon-to-be constructed Site C dam was being held by BC Hydro.
Previously in the meeting, a person came in and interrupted proceedings, tearing down signs and flipping over tables, according to witnesses.
The man left the room where the meeting happened and Dawson Creek RCMP were called to the scene.
Originally, the IIO believed that the masked individual RCMP shot and killed outside the building was “connected to the complaint.”
However, they say new information proved that not to be the case, and the man who caused the disturbance is fine.
“There are a lot of moving parts to this investigation,” said Kilpatrick, who said she was only told the original connection between the two incidents was incorrect when she arrived in Dawson Creek this afternoon.
“We’ve not seen a case with as quite as many moving parts as this one…To provide a significant change in the information is not something we typically deal with.”
Today, video surfaced of the aftermath of the shooting. Kilpatrick asked anyone with additional video or information to come forward.
“We would ask anyone who has information, cell video, any kind of information to come forward and make it available to us,” she said.
Investigators are in Dawson Creek conducting interviews; physical evidence; reviewing video and meeting with the family of the deceased.
WATCH: Witness captures Dawson Creek RCMP shooting on cellphone. Warning: Contains disturbing content.
Connection with Anonymous?
Social media posts claim McIntyre was affiliated with the loosely-connected online activist group Anonymous.
Anonymous has no identifiable leadership and its members are known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks. Its members have claimed responsibility in the past for hacking incidents including the shutdown of the Cleveland city website last fall after the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
User jaymack9 tweeted on Thursday afternoon that an Anonymous “splinter group” was to attend the Site C meeting in Dawson Creek that night.
YourAnonNews tweeted to its 1.46 million followers Friday: “Ohai rcmpgrcpolice we would like to report a murder of one of our comrades by some of your officers. Shall we expect justice or cover up?”
The account retweeted a post by another user OpAnonDown on Saturday that vowed to identify the officer and to post his personal information online. It called for protests outside RCMP stations across Canada and said it would raise funds for the man’s burial.
A ‘press release’ posted online yesterday said they will “most certainly avenge one of our own when they are cut down in the streets.”
The RCMP’s official website was down for much of Sunday morning and the hacktivist group appears to be claiming responsibility.
“We are all aware of this and we take all precautions,” said Kilpatrick of the online posts.
She has not confirmed witness reports that the man killed was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.
– With files from The Canadian Press and Jon Azpiri
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