Back in 2022, a woman experiencing a mental health crisis was shot by a VicPD officer using a beanbag round which broke her arm.
Because police force was used which led to an injury, the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) launched an investigation to ensure the officers involved were not using force unjustly.
Nearly two years later, the IIO concluded their investigation and found that the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing.
On September 9th, 2022, witnesses reported to the IIO that there was a woman sitting near a corner at Beacon Hill Park. There were reports of this person consuming illicit substances.
The IIO say that the individual at the corner was screaming and yelling at passersby and was getting closer to the residences across the street throughout the day.
In the evening, at 7:28 p.m. a resident nearby called the police reporting the person being “high on drugs.”
The IIO say the first VicPD officer to arrive got there about 10 minutes later at 7:38 p.m. to find the woman sitting on the ground with her belongings strewn about her on the ground.
This officer says that the woman was yelling at him and she was non-respondent when he asked her to stop yelling and leave the area.
He decided to arrest her for causing a disturbance, but then she grabbed a knife and held it to her throat while speaking about wanting to be killed.
At this point, the IIO say that three other officers were called in, one of which was a trained crisis negotiator.
The negotiator reported that they spoke calmly to the distressed woman for hours, but she was unable to focus on him enough to have a coherent conversation.
During this time, the VicPD officers involved say the woman was slinging slurs at them and appeared to be “in full psychosis,” stabbing at the ground with the knife she held.
Negotiations continued until around 10:15 p.m. before the situation was handed over to the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT).
GVERT say they determined they would need to “tactically” resolve the situation by using “increasing force” to get the knife out of her hands so they could apprehend her under the Metal Health Act.
Their first show of force was to surround her with vehicles and deploy a flashbang (noise flash diversionary device).
The IIO report says she showed little reaction to the flashbang being deployed and said to the officers, “Is that all you got?”
Next, officers used a device which can spray pepper spray (oleoresin capsicum) from 10 to 15 feet away.
GVERT officers say the woman had her back turned to them and the pepper spray thoroughly soaked her back and hair, but she was still not cooperating.
Following the pepper spray and flashbang, GVERT officers deployed a taser (conducted energy weapon) on her.
The weapon did not end up making good enough contact with the woman, so the taser was also unsuccessful, according to the report.
Next, officers moved to firing a beanbag gun at the woman.
The officer, who fired five rounds at her, said they saw two of the rounds make contact with each of her arms, causing her to hunch over.
At this time, the IIO report says that she began cutting her arm with the knife, still hunched over.
The officers then acted quickly to prevent her from causing any self-harm and began launching more beanbag rounds and rubber bullets at her until she threw the knife from her hand.
According to the IIO, the officers present then swarmed her with ballistic shields and were able to hold her to the ground using the weight of their bodies on the shields.
One officer reported that when he tried to handcuff her, he felt “bone on bone grinding,” so they opted to not cuff her.
She was reportedly no longer yelling or resisting. Officers present said she was in a catatonic state at this point.
A GVERT medic who was present told the IIO that when he assessed her, she had a laceration on her left arm caused by self-harm and a broken arm which was caused by a beanbag round that penetrated her skin.
She was then transported to hospital.
IIO’s findings
The purpose of the IIO’s investigation is to explain to the public what occurred to cause a police officer to injure or kill an individual.
This process can either increase public confidence in the police, or the IIO will recommend charges be brought to the officers involved if they determine there was a misuse of power in a situation which caused someone to be injured or killed.
In this particular situation, the IIO focussed on the justifications for using a level of force which ultimately injured the distressed woman.
The IIO admitted that the “optics” of the incident were not ideal, considering it took 14 police officers, an armoured vehicle and several hours to apprehend one woman in the throes of a drug psychosis state.
They found that for an officer to go “hands on” with a woman in this state would have presented the possibility of bodily harm to the officer.
The IIO said that VicPD should be given credit for trying to de-escalate for as long as they did and that if the officers involved did not step in with the force they used, she may have hurt herself worse than she had already.
“Therefore, taking steps to apprehend was appropriate,” said Ronald MacDonald, Chief Civilian Officer of the IIO.
“When it became apparent that some level of force would be necessary to get [the woman] to drop her weapons, that force was applied incrementally.”
“It is unfortunate that [the police officer’s] projectiles caused serious injury to [the woman], but all the involved officers were clearly trying to apprehend without harm,” MacDonald continued.
No charges were recommended and Macdonald cleared the involved officers of any wrongdoing.
The full IIO report is available online here.
