WATCH: A Vancouver man convicted of beating his German Sheppard and leaving it to die in a dumpster, has now been charged with murder in the second degree following a standoff on Vancouver West Side yesterday. Rumina Daya reports.
Twenty-eight-year-old Brian Whitlock has been charged with second degree murder and is in custody in connection with the death of a woman on Vancouver’s west side.
The woman has been identified through court documents as Whitlock’s mother, Barbara.
Whitlock made a brief first court appearance this morning.
He was detained following an eight-hour standoff with police at a house on W. 23rd Ave and Balaclava St.
According to VPD Cst. Brian Montague, the body was discovered by a relative of the deceased at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Police arrived to find the suspect had barricaded himself inside the house. Emergency response team negotiators tried to make contact with the man for hours while several small fires were lit. The standoff finally ended at around 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning, with officers using a non-lethal tactical weapon to take the suspect down.
Whitlock was sentenced to 60 days in jail last year for beating his German Shepard named Captain and leaving him to die in a dumpster.
When people found Captain in the dumpster, he was covered in cuts and puncture wounds, with serious neurological and spinal damage. He died the next day, and the SPCA began to investigate.
Whitlock pleaded guilty to charges of abuse, but said he thought Captain was suffering and was trying to “put him out of his misery.”
At the time, Whitlock’s lawyers argued that he was mentally ill and a psychiatrist diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia.
Following this morning’s court appearance, Whitlock’s lawyer Jeff Campbell said “he was subject to a probation order that included psychiatric treatment, so we’ll be reviewing the history of his psychiatric treatment. Whether that’s a factor in this case, we don’t know yet.”
During the court appearance, Whitlock agreed to have no further contact or speak with witnesses Spencer and Jeffrey Whitlock. He will remain in custody until his next court appearance on Nov. 24.