WATCH: One man is dead after a violent altercation with police in Burnaby. As Catherine Urquhart reports, it started as a domestic dispute, but when it escalated police ended up using a taser on the man.
One man is dead and a police officer was taken to hospital after a domestic dispute in Burnaby this afternoon that involved an officer deploying a taser.
“A taser was employed, and the individual is deceased,” confirmed Chief Civilian Director Richard Rosenthal of the Independent Investigations Office.
RCMP say the taser had no effect on the man – whose name has not been released – but say he became unresponsive while being taken into custody.
It happened at an apartment building on the corner of Walker Avenue and Elwell Street. Burnaby RCMP were called to a domestic dispute around 2:30 p.m.
The IIO will be investigating the incident, including determining the amount of time between when the taser was deployed and when the man died.
“We’ve got forensic investigators on scene and we’ll conducting interviews with witnesses,” said Rosenthal. “Any and all officers have been identified and will be interviewed.”
The man who died is reportedly the son of the person who lives in the apartment. The sliding glass door of the unit appears to be broken.
Burnaby RCMP said one their officers was struck in the head with an unknown object during the incident, but the IIO will not confirm.
“The injuries aren’t serious, that’s really all we can see at this point,” said Rosenthal.
“We’re going to investigate the incident in its entirety…and determine what happened and determine if there is any reason to believe there is any criminal culpability.”