An independent Alberta investigative body will review new video and witness information in the shooting death of Paul Boyd in August 2007.
The investigation was announced Tuesday, shortly after citizen video emerged showing the final moments of Boyd’s life as he crawled on the streets before he was shot and killed by Vancouver police.
B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond said the VPD agree with the external investigation and will fully co-operate.
“It is essential that British Columbians have confidence in their police,” Bond said in a release.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association released the video to media this week and called for the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner to reopen the case.
On Monday, deputy police complaints commissioner Rollie Woods said there has been a lengthy and thorough review of everything that went down that fateful night.
“We are saying there was no misconduct,” Woods said of the fatal shooting.
The police complaint office has determined VPD Const. Lee Chipperfield did not use excessive force in the Granville Street shooting of Boyd – a 39-year-old animator diagnosed with bipolar disorder – on Aug. 13, 2007.
In 2009, the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch ruled there was insufficient evidence Chipperfield used excessive force.
When police arrived at the scene in 2007, they came across Boyd.
An officer seated in a police cruiser was approached by Boyd, who appeared to be holding a hammer.
A second officer drew his gun and ordered Boyd to drop the hammer and get on the ground.
Boyd complied, but when approached by officers, he jumped up and struck the officer several times with a bicycle chain. Attempts were made to stop Boyd, but he ran into the street, swinging the chain.
Chipperfield, one of several officers on scene, fired multiple shots from his service pistol, including one fatal shot to Boyd’s head.
Woods said it has been an extensive process in determining what happened in the tragedy. He said Boyd’s family has been given the police complaint commissioner’s ruling.
Boyd had not taken medication for his bipolar disorder on that night as bystanders called police reporting an out-of-control man on Granville Street.
There have been several probes into the shooting, including one by the RCMP Office of Investigative Standards to determine the quality of the Vancouver Police Department investigation. The RCMP office submitted an almost 6,000-page report to the Criminal Justice Branch, which determined no charge would be laid.
Following a coroner’s inquest, and after seeking independent expert opinion, police complaints Commissioner Stan Lowe concluded there was no evidence that Chipperfield used unnecessary or excessive force during the tense incident.
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