Use of force expert raises questions about police methods in shooting death of Surrey, B.C., student

A use of force expert reviewing a short video of the incident says he has questions about the actions of RCMP officers after a Grade 10 student was shot and killed during a confrontation with police in Surrey, B.C., over the weekend.

But the RCMP's union and a former Mountie say officers must make difficult, split-second decisions in high-pressure situations.

Officers were called to a schoolyard in the 7000 block of 188 Street Sunday at about 2:40 p.m. PT following reports of a person in distress with a firearm, according to B.C. RCMP. The shooting occurred several blocks away in a residential area following what police are calling "an extensive interaction."

University of Alberta criminology professor Temitope Oriola, who specializes in policing and use of force, says while police are permitted by law to use a range of force up to and including lethal force, wonders whether more could have been done to de-escalate the situation.

Oriola watched security camera footage provided by CBC News that showed part of the police's interaction with the teen. He said the interaction ended "too quickly and seemingly hastily."

"It is absolutely possible that a few more minutes of verbal engagement and restraint on the part of the officers might have saved his life," Oriola told CBC News.

The video, less than a minute long, shows a person walking across a yard, pointing what appears to be a handgun at his head.

Police can be heard shouting and asking the person not to harm himself, and at one point, the person points what appears to be a handgun in the direction of the police.

The person then moves behind a bush, out of the camera's view, and the footage shows two officers taking cover behind a police car.

What sounds like two gunshots can then be heard in quick succession before several officers rush into the frame toward the person.

Split-second decisions

While many details have yet to emerge about the incident, including what happened between the schoolyard and the location where the teen was killed, Oriola is calling for better de-escalation training for RCMP officers across the country. 

He says officers could've tried to speak to the teen for a longer period of time or attempted to distract him and take away his weapon.

"My favourite approach … would be to ensure that those who are recruited into police services across Canada have the requisite training, educational training that's required for 21st-century policing," Oriola said.

Retired RCMP Staff Sgt. Garry Kerr, who served in the force for over 30 years, says officers have to make split-second decisions when confronted with a weapon. 

"At least one of the police officers must have thought that his or her life was in danger," Kerr said in an interview with CBC News.

He says while dealing with standoffs with people in distress, officers want to make every possible effort to ensure no one else is involved.

He says in these situations, officers are focusing on not losing sight of the person in distress and that they don't enter any nearby homes or injure anyone.

"There's an awful lot of things going on in a very, very short period of time," he said.

"It's kind of the worst-case scenario for any police officer, but you have a duty to attend the call. Unfortunately, that ended very tragically in this case."

The RCMP is not commenting any further on the shooting death as it's now being investigated by B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office. The watchdog will determine whether police actions were "necessary, reasonable, and proportionate in the circumstances."

'We are not a bunch of cowboys'

The officers involved are taking a break from the field to get support, according to Trevor Dinwoodie, a board director with the National Police Federation, the union representing RCMP members.

"Situations like this can definitely take a toll on your psyche ... I don't think anyone laced up their boots Sunday morning thinking that they were going to face a threat like this and that for it to have such tragic consequences," he told CBC News.

"Our hearts and thoughts are with everyone that's impacted, especially the family and the community."

Dinwoodie, who was a front-line RCMP officer for about two decades, says officers try to use de-escalation techniques in every case but that sometimes the threat is too great.

"Many of our officers work 30, 35 years in this outfit. Many of them are operational for that entire time, and we never have to use lethal force," he said.

"We are not a bunch of cowboys walking into a situation thinking that we're just going to deal with it in the first 20 seconds."

Oriola says deaths similar to the Surrey teen's happen far too often across the country.