Vancouver police cleared in fatal shooting of youth who had air pistol

SURREY — British Columbia’s independent police watchdog agency has cleared Vancouver police officers of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a youth in 2023.

The Independent Investigations Office says the shooting at Clinton Park in East Vancouver on Aug. 5, 2023, happened after the youth pointed a replica air pistol handgun at officers.

IIO Chief Civilian Director Jessica Berglund says she found it “difficult to reconcile police accounts of the incident with the objective evidence,” specifically reports of a “muzzle flash” from the shooter that an expert says cannot be produced by an air pistol.

But Berglund adds that the facts remain that officers were responding to a reports of shots fired, and the youth matching the shooter’s description stood and pointed a realistic-looking handgun at police.

She says that “those facts alone” supported the officers’ belief that they faced an “imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm,” and the use of lethal force was justified.

Police were initially called to the park in response to a report of shots fired and glass being broken, and later investigation found that the five officers involved fired more than 20 shots at the youth, hitting him six times in the head, neck and elsewhere.

The report says the case will not be referred to Crown counsel due to the police’s justifiable use of lethal force.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.