Fatal halfway-house shooting by Surrey officers justified, B.C. police watchdog rules

SURREY — British Columbia’s police watchdog says two Surrey officers’ use of force was “justified and lawful” in the fatal shooting of a knife-wielding man at a Corrections Canada halfway house last January.

A report from the Independent Investigations Office says officers with the Surrey Police Service responded to a report that the man was in breach of parole conditions, and when they entered his unit in the facility for inmates on conditional release, he confronted them with a knife.

The report by Chief Civilian Director Jessica Berglund says the man had been flagged as a “high-risk offender” with a history of self-harm and assaulting staff, and he told the responding officers he was “not going back to jail.”

The watchdog says an officer who witnessed the shooting recalled hearing one of the other officers yell at the man to “drop the knife,” while a civilian witness told investigators the man “began running fully towards” police carrying the blade.

The report says the witness officer deployed his stun gun, but it was ineffective, and the man raised the knife and “charged” at police, prompting two officers to fire their pistols, killing him.

Berglund says in the report she did not find reasonable grounds to believe an officer may have committed an offence and the case would not be referred to Crown prosecutors for consideration of charges.

The evidence “establishes that the (man) drew a large knife and advanced quickly towards the officers in a confined space, wielding the weapon in a clearly threatening manner,” the report says.

“In those circumstances, the subject officers’ belief that it was necessary to use lethal force in protection of themselves and of the civilian staff was objectively reasonable, and the force deployed was justified and lawful.”

The report says evidence recovered from the scene included a “large kitchen knife” with a blade about seven inches long.

The investigation also included statements from seven civilian witnesses, two paramedics and six police officers, as well as audio recordings of 911 calls and security footage from common areas, among other evidence, the office says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2025.