The province’s police watchdog has cleared six Vancouver cops involved in a December 2022 arrest of a man who suffered four broken fingers while being taken into custody at a housing complex.
At the same time, Ronald MacDonald, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, suggested police could have potentially de-escalated the situation before firing three beanbag rounds from a shotgun at the man.
“In situations where someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, there is some research that indicates that police commands that are delivered in a loud and/or aggressive manner are likely to have adverse outcomes when the person is experiencing a mental health crisis,” MacDonald said in a report released Aug. 9.
MacDonald said there may have been an opportunity for officers to try to de-escalate the situation before yelling commands at the man, “who was clearly facing some sort of mental health crisis.”
“This may have provided a better chance that [the man] would have been compliant with officers.”
MacDonald added the police’s use of force in this case was “within the range of reasonableness” to stop the man from retreating into his room or harming officers or other occupants of the building.
“I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment and therefore the matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges,” he concluded.
Armed with scissors
The case dates back to Dec. 6, 2022, when police were dispatched at 8:21 p.m. to answer a call of a man who allegedly threatened a neighbour with scissors during a fight, according to MacDonald’s report, which doesn’t provide the address of the housing complex.
Six police officers arrived four minutes after the 911 call and heard from a witness that the man was armed with scissors, had chased another resident and cut tags off his door. Three officers went upstairs to the man’s room while one secured the stairwell and two others remained in the lobby.
When police knocked on the man’s door, he cracked it open and said something that could not be understood by officers. A witness heard police tell the man to open the door, come out and make sure he didn’t have anything in his hands.
The man then entered the hallway with a dish towel in his right hand. An officer repeatedly told the man to drop the towel because he couldn’t see his hands, fearing he might be concealing scissors.
Police fire three beanbags from a shotgun
The man did not listen and began to walk towards the three officers. One of the officers then fired a beanbag round from a shotgun at the man, which struck him in the stomach. He clutched his stomach and attempted to return to his room.
Police did not want him to return to his room because they were not certain whether the man had access to more weapons, which could potentially put more residents in the hallway in danger, according to the IIOBC report.
Police fired two more beanbag rounds from the shotgun at the man.
“After the third round of beanbag deployment, [the man] put his hands up in the air,” the report said. “[The man] was arrested and placed in custody. A pair of scissors were located in [the man’s] rear pants pocket.”
He was taken to hospital after suffering a cut on his stomach, a broken finger on his right hand and three broken fingers on his left hand. Investigators from MacDonald’s office asked for an interview with the man, but he refused, the report said.
MacDonald noted the man presented less of a threat when he was walking away from the officers and back towards his room. However, he said, it was clear that officers could not allow him to return to his room, “as he potentially posed a danger to himself or others.”
“With this in mind, the further use of the beanbag shotgun by [the officer] to gain [the man’s] compliance cannot be said to be unreasonable in the circumstances,” the report said.
