Transit officer used ‘reasonable force’ in fatal confrontation: police watchdog

SURREY, B.C. – A transit police officer has been cleared of wrongdoing in a fatal confrontation in Surrey, B.C.

The Independent Investigations Office, the body that probes serious incidents involving police, issued a report saying the officer used reasonable force when she shot the 23-year-old man in a Safeway in December 2014.

The report says two officers arrived at the scene and were confronted by a shirtless man with multiple wounds who had reportedly stabbed himself inside the grocery store.

Police ordered the man to drop the knives he was waving, but he did not and instead moved towards the officers.

The report says the knives could have caused the officers serious injury or death and the female officer’s decision to fire her gun was reasonable given the circumstances.

The officer later told investigators that she believed the young man was high on drugs or in a severe episode of mental illness.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the 23-year-old man was shot in a Safeway parking lot.