British Columbia’s police watchdog has cleared Vancouver officers in the fatal shooting of a man in the Downtown Eastside earlier this year.
A report released by the Independent Investigations Office says the officers’ use of force in the Jan. 5 shooting was “justified, necessary and proportionate” because “they had no choice.”
It says officers responded to an early morning call from the Salvation Army, where a man who appeared to be drunk was banging on windows and had reportedly been seen carrying a sword.
The report says the officers feared the man, who was not named by the oversight agency, would either stab them or one of the bystanders across the street.
It says the officers were not carrying a stun gun and fired a total of five shots from their firearms from about three metres away.
The report says the man was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.