The shots fired by a Langley, B.C., RCMP officer that killed an active shooter in late July 2022 were justified, the provincial police watchdog says.
The officer likely “saved many lives, including his own,” according to the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) report.
The IIO released its report on Thursday, assessing the Langley RCMP officer’s decision to shoot the suspect, whom homicide investigators later identified as 28-year-old Jordan Daniel Goggins.
“The conclusion that the IIO reached is that the actions of the officer to fatally shoot the effective person in this matter were justified by the entirety of the circumstances,” said Ron MacDonald, IIO’s chief civilian director.
In the early hours of July 25, 2022, Goggin went on a shooting spree that left two people dead and two others injured.
The active shooter’s final moments, and the interaction between himself and his last shooting victim, were detailed in the IIO report.
The victim was riding his bicycle southbound along 200 Street around 5:30 a.m.
According to the report, the victim was passing the Langley Bypass when Goggin emerged from a bush.
Goggin then asked the victim for drugs or if he knew where to get drugs.
That is when Goggin produced a black Glock gun and pointed it at the victim’s head.
According to the report, the victim either hit or slapped the gun away, and the two began fighting. In the struggle the victim was shot in the leg. Other witnesses told the IIO they heard four to five shots.
The victim told IIO investigators he felt like he was fighting for his life.
That is when the gun jammed with a bullet in the chamber, the report said.
Just minutes after the gunfire, Langley RCMP were called to the scene.
The responding officer that first arrived saw Goggins, and determined that he was attempting to shoot the victim, who was then laying on the ground.
A few seconds later, the shooter ran away from the scene, into an adjacent parking lot.
“(The officer) drove through bushes and towards the parking lot, where (Goggins) was running,” IIO staff wrote in the report.
“(The officer) described his threat and risk level to be ‘extremely high’ and the highest he ‘had faced in more than two decades of police service.’”
The officer saw the black gun in Goggin’s hand and when he raised the pistol towards the officer, the officer made the decision to shoot.
“Fearing for his life, (the officer) shot through the windshield of his police vehicle,” IIO staff said.
“He saw (Goggins) try to manipulate the gun, and then point it a second time towards him in a shooting stance. (The officer) shot at (Goggins) several more times.”
Goggins was shot three times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The officer placed himself in great danger to limit the threat to the public,” MacDonald said in the report.
“His actions that day may have saved many lives, including his own.”
The motive for the shootings remains unknown, according to the IIO.
“Nobody is really sure of the motive,” said MacDonald.
“In this case, we are left at a loss of what exactly his motive was.
“We do understand he was suffering from some mental health issues and, as the report details, had been abusing some substances but in terms of why he chose that night is still a mystery.”
In the report, the IIO said the shooter suffered from depression and drug addictions. He had benzodiazepine, codeine and tramadol in his blood system according to a toxicology report.
On July 25, 2022. RCMP officers responded to shots fired at several locations throughout the City of Langley and one scene in the Township of Langley that involved “transient” victims, according to an emergency alert sent to people’s cellphones around 6:20 a.m. on July 25.
A woman near 203A Street and Fraser Highway was taken to hospital in critical condition while one man’s body was found at Creek Stone Place on 201 Street and another at the Langley City bus loop near Glover Road and Logan.
A fourth victim was found near the Langley Bypass with a gunshot wound to the leg.
At a news conference back in July, Sgt. David Lee with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said the gunfire had started around midnight at the Cascade Casino, with the second at 3 a.m. at Creek Stone Place, the third at 5 a.m. at the bus loop, and a fourth at 5:45 a.m. at the Langley Bypass.
Police later identified the two victims as Paul David Wynn, 60, who died outside Creek Stone Place and Steven Furness, 43, who died at the Langley bus loop.
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