A Victoria police officer who fired the “less lethal” round into a smoky apartment that struck and killed a woman six years ago should be suspended for seven days without pay, a discipline hearing has concluded.
Retired judge Wally Oppal ruled in May that Sgt. Ron Kirkwood committed misconduct under the Police Act in the Christmas Day 2019 incident that left 43-year-old Lisa Rauch dead.
Oppal concluded that Kirkwood was a good police officer who had made an error during a difficult call, resulting in “catastrophic circumstances.”
Firing three projectiles from the ARWEN, a so-called “less-lethal launcher,” into a room with obscured visibility was “reckless and unnecessary,” Oppal found.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) ordered a public hearing into the death in 2023 on appeals from Rauch’s family, who said they received inconsistent information from police and from the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) — B.C.’s civilian police watchdog.
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An IIO investigation had cleared police of criminal wrongdoing in the incident.
The OPCC-ordered hearing heard that Rauch had been visiting a friend in the building and that the two had consumed alcohol and crystal meth before a fire broke out.
Victoria police were called to reports that she was barricaded inside a suite and had threatened someone with a knife.
The hearing heard that responding officers responded to smoke coming from the unit’s window by entering the apartment, where Kirkwood fired three rounds from the ARWEN gun, striking Rauch in the head.
She was knocked unconscious and never woke up.
Kirkwood told the hearing he believed Lisa posed a danger to others and that he fired the projectiles into the unit, believing he was aiming at her torso.
In concluding Kirkwood had committed misconduct, Oppal ruled the sergeant should not have fired at Rauch with his vision obscured by smoke, and that that situation didn’t justify potentially deadly force.
He accepted that Kirwkood had not intended to kill Rauch, and that the officer felt genuine remorse.
He also dismissed allegations that Kirkwood neglected his duty by failing to document his actions.
A coroner’s inquest into the death is still set to be scheduled in the coming months.
— with files from the Canadian Press
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