Investigators with the Independent Investigations Office of BC are now on the scene in Campbell River after an officer-involved shooting.
Monday’s fatal shooting is the third officer-involved fatal shooting in Campbell River in less than a year, according to Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office of BC.
“It is unusual to have this many officer involved shootings in a community the size of Campbell River. It’s hard to pinpoint why that happens. It could just be chance and coincidence.”
Dr. Rick Parent, Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, says it could point to an increase in violence in the community.
“I don’t know what’s going on in Campbell River, but I know for the police to be involved in three of them means there is a lot of community violence going on. And maybe it means good police work in the sense that police are able to respond to that community violence in a quick way.”
Six active investigations by IIO are underway on Vancouver Island, the three in Campbell River, a fatal shooting Sept. 12 in Victoria, another on February 27, 2021 on Meares Island, a shooting resulting in serious injury in Ucluelet on May 8 of last year, and the shooting in Campbell River last summer.
28-year-old Julien Jones died after he was fatally shot by police on Meares Island February 2021.
Tofino RCMP shot and seriously wounded a woman in Ucluelet back in May 2021.
During the July 8 incident in Campbell River, a police dog was fatally wounded.
The September shooting in Victoria involved a man with a knife near Mayfair Mall.
The number of officer involved shootings in BC so far this year is up.
But the number of Canadians killed by police remains steady at approximately 25, according to Parent who is also a former police officer.
“Canadian cops are reluctant users of deadly force. It doesn’t happen very often in Canada.”
The investigation into the latest shooting is expected to take months before a final report is made public.
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Mary Griffin
