Transit Police Shoot & Kill Man To Stop Him From Stabbing Self

Man shot and killed by transit police in Surrey

CBC: December 28, 2014

Metro Vancouver Transit Police shot and killed a distraught man inside a grocery store in Surrey, B.C., on Sunday morning, according to the province’s Independent Investigations Office.

The IIO, which provides civilian oversight of serious police incidents, said Surrey RCMP and transit police were responding to a report of a man with a knife inside a Safeway store at 104 Avenue and the King George Boulevard shortly after 8 a.m. PT.

Metro Vancouver Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said an attendant at the Surrey Central Skytrain Station called transit police Sunday morning to report a man behaving irrationally, banging his head against the wall and yelling and screaming.
Man shot by transit police in Surrey

Around the same time, she said Surrey RCMP received a call from a convenience store located about 300 metres from the station stating a man had gone behind the counter where the clerk was and was demanding a knife.

“He wanted the clerk to give him a knife, give him a knife,” repeating his words, said Drennan.

When transit police arrived at the convenience store, Drennan said the man was gone, but a call had come in for a man with a knife inside the nearby Safeway store.

Man stabbing himself: Transit police

Drennan said when the officers entered the Safeway, they saw a man with a knife who was repeatedly stabbing himself.

“They started talking to him, issuing commands, directions to drop the knife,” she said. “He refused to so so. He advanced on the officers and shots were fired.”

The man was rushed to hospital but later died of his injuries.

Drennan said transit police in B.C. are a police force certified in the same way as municipal and RCMP police officers and if there’s a call and they are the closest police force, they have the authority to respond.

(read the full article at CBC)


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