B.C.’s civilian police watchdog has cleared four RCMP officers of wrongdoing in a chase and high-powered shootout in Merritt that left a suspect with gunshot wounds and his 11-year-old son injured.
The incident on June 6, 2021 involved a chaotic police pursuit on the roads in and around Merritt, with dozens of shots fired at three locations.
Fort St. John resident Gerald Cooper later pleaded guilty to five charges, including criminal negligence causing bodily harm and discharging a firearm with intent, along with weapons and stolen property offences. Several other charges, including attempted murder, were stayed. He was eventually sentenced to three years in prison.
In his report on the incident, Independent Investigations Office chief civilian director Ron MacDonald found that the suspect had fired first, and had been using a rifle that was illegally modified to shoot in full-automatic mode.
Responding officers “were placed … in a situation where they were justified in deploying lethal force in self defence and to prevent harm to others,” MacDonald wrote.
“They had been explicitly authorized by a superior officer to use such force and were in fact, in these circumstances, under a duty to do so.”
High-powered shootout
According to the watchdog’s report, an RCMP officer had been investigating suspected property crimes at a location north of Quilchena, about 25 kilometres east of Merritt, when Cooper “fled.”
He’d been driving a one-ton flatbed truck and trailer with son riding as a passenger. He crashed through a fence and sped away, and the officer did not pursue him, following RCMP policy.
Cooper spent about half an hour driving on side roads and dropping the trailer, before being spotted driving towards Merritt by a second officer, according to the report.
RCMP deployed a spike belt, which damaged the truck’s tires, at which point both officers activated their lights and sirens and went after him.
Not longer after, the first officer radioed in that someone had shot at him; investigation later found a dozen non-RCMP-issue .223-caliber shells at the scene.
According to the report, Cooper then stopped the truck in the Nicola Ranch area and fired “several volleys” towards police.
He told the watchdog he’d told his son to go to a nearby fence line and claimed he had returned fire when police “just opened up on me.”
A witness reported seeing a man get out of the truck and fire a gun. The witness also said he thought he heard police return fire, but the report found no evidence of that, though investigators did find 10 of the same type of shells recovered at the first site.
Cooper and his son then got back into the truck and sped towards Merritt, where he was pursued by multiple RCMP vehicles.
Over the radio, the officers were instructed to let the truck drive through the city, but were authorized to return fire if shot at.
The truck eventually stopped in the middle of the highway and “the driver jumped out of the vehicle, turned to face our direction and began shooting at us,” one officer stated, prompting police to return fire with carbines.
When a pair of civilian vehicles approached, officers stopped firing and Cooper’s son surrendered, the report states. Later examination revealed the child had a chest wound caused by bullet fragments.
Another civilian witness told the watchdog they heard police yell, “Give up, get down, throw your guns out” and heard the suspect respond, “F— you” and start shooting at the officers.
Cooper surrendered after being shot in the abdomen, the report concludes.
Investigators recovered another 16 spent .223-calibre shells at the scene, along with multiple magazines and more than 70 live shells. Ninety-five RCMP-issue 5.56 mm shells were also retrieved.
“It was (the suspect) alone who created the circumstances that led to him being shot,” MacDonald said.
“There is no evidence that any officer discharged a firearm until (the suspect) began firing multiple shots in their direction when his vehicle finally came to a stop. At the range involved, his firearm was quite capable of causing grievous bodily harm or death to any of the officers, or to any unfortunate civilian in his line of fire.”