In July 2021, RCMP officers in Campbell River killed Jared Lowndes in his car.
In April 2022, they chased and killed an unnamed man on Island Highway.
In June 2022, they shot and killed an unnamed man in Discovery Marina.
We don’t know a lot about the folks they killed. Were they bad people? Jared Lowndes had a warrant out for his arrest. The man in Discovery Marina had taken people hostage. That’s not great.
But we do know that these people are dead. They don’t get their day in court. They can’t stick up for themselves because the RCMP killed them before they got a chance.
You may be wondering whether it’s normal for the RCMP to shoot and kill people on Vancouver Island. We looked around and it’s tough to find information. But we are starting to see an alarming trend.
Why do the Campbell River RCMP keep killing people?
It may take years to get an answer. RCMP in Port Hardy killed James Butters in 2015. It took nearly five years for the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) to decide the RCMP didn’t do anything wrong.
But the IIO is staffed by civilians and former police officers. If former cops are investigating cops, can we be sure they’re independent? Is it harder for them to see whether a cop was at fault?
We’re still waiting for answers from the IIO on the two Tla-o-qui-aht people the RCMP shot near Tofino in 2021.
In the meantime, all we have are questions. The main question is: why do the Campbell River RCMP keep killing people?
Aren’t cops trained to deal with dangerous situations without killing anyone?
