Police cleared in fatal 2024 shooting of woman in Surrey, B.C.

SURREY — British Columbia’s independent police watchdog says an officer was justified in using lethal force in the fatal shooting of a woman threatening her baby.

The Independent Investigations Office says in a report released Friday that on Sept. 19, 2024, the Surrey, B.C., officer shot a woman who was holding scissors to her baby’s neck.

The report says the situation was made worse because the woman spoke little to no English, and there were no Spanish-speaking services available other than the use of Google Translate.

Police had responded to a call after someone reported the woman breaking things and locking herself and the baby in a bathroom at a home in Surrey.

The report says police attempted to talk to the woman but she started to “drive the scissors towards the baby’s neck,” and one officer fired two shots.

Advocacy group Battered Women’s Support Services identified the woman as Vanessa Rentería.

The group criticized the watchdog’s findings, saying they reinforce the police account of the shooting rather than exposing “structural failure,” such as the absence of translation and other tools.

“Language access is a matter of life and death. Vanessa was a Spanish-speaking woman in crisis, yet no Spanish-speaking officers were deployed. Instead, RCMP relied on Google Translate, a free app, to communicate in a moment where every word mattered,” a statement says.

“Vanessa didn’t need Google Translate; she needed safety. That the RCMP relied on a free app in a life-or-death crisis shows how little value is placed on the lives of immigrant women.”

The advocacy group says machine translation cannot provide “nuance, reassurance or trust.”

“It cannot replace the role of a qualified interpreter, let alone the culturally informed care that should have been deployed.”

The group claims it was miscommunication through the app that told police Rentería said she would harm her baby, a claim they say was later walked back by witnesses.

“That single mistranslated moment may have escalated the encounter toward her death,” the statement says.

The watchdog’s report notes the woman was a newcomer to Canada and had spent several months in a shelter for women who experience domestic violence.

It says she had recently returned to the home shared with her spouse and another family member before the shooting, and she may have been in an abusive relationship.

“It is very unfortunate that there was no Spanish-speaking officer available in the critical moments, although it is not certain that this would have effectively de-escalated the situation,” the report says.

It says officers believed she was going to harm the baby and the decision to shoot was reasonable to protect the child.

The report adds that police had prepared a less lethal option to use, but the plan called for the use of lethal force “if she starts stabbing the baby.”

“In this case, all the officers interviewed by the IIO who could see (Rentería) in the bathtub said that (she) had a pair of open scissors which were moving rapidly toward the baby’s neck,” the report says.

The office says the case will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2025.