Vancouver officer charged a year after pedestrian strike in Downtown Eastside

VANCOUVER — The BC Prosecution Service says a Vancouver police officer has been charged under the Motor Vehicle Act for driving without reasonable consideration for others, a year after a pedestrian was hit in the city’s Downtown Eastside.

The prosecution service says Const. Aaron Carter faces the charge after B.C.’s police watchdog was called in to investigate the crash.

The Independent Investigations Office said in a statement at the time that a man was walking on East Hastings near Dunlevy after midnight on May 21, 2024, when he was hit by a police vehicle.

A statement from the office last year says the man was taken to hospital with serious injuries, and it forwarded a report to the prosecutor’s office, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe the officer may have committed driving offences.

The prosecution service says the charge was approved by an “experience Crown counsel with no connection” to the officer.

Carter’s first appearance in Vancouver provincial court is set for June 18.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.