An investigation has found that a Metro Vancouver Transit Officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing after a man was fatally shot by Metro Vancouver Transit Police in Surrey in 2014.
According to the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO), the man encountered transit officers at a Safeway store at King George Hwy. and 104 Ave.
Transit Police spokesperson Anne Drennan told Global News that the incident began just before 8 a.m. when Surrey RCMP received a call from the All Day All Nite convenience store near Surrey Central SkyTrain station. The clerk told police a man came behind the counter demanding that he be given a knife. RCMP passed the call on to transit police nearby. Transit officers then heard reports of a man with a knife at the nearby Safeway.
“When they entered the store they found there was a man in the store who was repeatedly stabbing himself with a knife,” says Drennan. “They spoke to the man, engaged in a conversation, tried to get him to drop the knife…He didn’t pay any attention and instead advanced upon the officers. As a result, shots were fired.”
“This was a busy Safeway,”adds Drennan. “There was a full complement of staff. It was 8:00 in the morning and quite a large number of customers were on scene.”
Blake Simning says his girlfriend, who works in the Safeway, saw the man take a knife off the shelves and start stabbing himself.
“He started coming after her so she ran in the bakery, and took two of the big racks to stop him,” says Simning. “She said there were two shots. One went through their freezer and the other one got the gentleman with the knife.”
The man was transported to Royal Columbian Hospital but did not survive his injuries.
The shooting marks the second time the police watchdog has responded to incidents in the region.
Investigators responded Friday night and Saturday in Abbotsford to the scene of a fatal traffic accident between a teenage pedestrian and an off-duty police officer who was driving his own car.
-with files from Canadian Press
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