Police investigators are backtracking on the version of events released Thursday morning by Surrey RCMP about one of its officers firing fatal shots to stop a suspect.
"I know there has been some information out there that there may have been an exchange of gunfire but I cannot confirm that. Our investigators have not confirmed that," Saanich police Sgt. Dean Jantzen said.
RCMP contacted Saanich Police to conduct an independent investigation.
At 11 p.m. Wednesday a Surrey Mountie conducting a traffic stop in the 15400 block of 16th Avenue noticed a firearm inside the suspect's vehicle, a white Chrysler 300 sedan, Jantzen confirmed.
When the officer went to call for backup the driver sped away.
Minutes later, some distance away at King George Boulevard and Highway 10, a spike strip was deployed to stop the Chrysler. An RCMP cruiser was used to pin the vehicle to the curb.
The officer involved then fired on the vehicle. Jantzen, however, noted investigators were "not sure whether there was a round fired by the deceased or not," in what he described as a "deadly force encounter."
He couldn't confirm if a short police chase ensued after the original encounter.
Before turning the investigation over to Saanich Police, Surrey RCMP said gunfire was exchanged in the moments around when the two cars collided. The statement added the "deceased male was in possession with what appears to be an assault rifle and a handgun within arms reach."
"How those events unfolded in those few seconds," Jantzen suggested, was "too early to tell."
RCMP 'E' Division concurred with the Saanich Police assessment in a separate statement issued Thursday afternoon.
Jantzen declined to reveal information about the officer involved, gender or years of service.
The victim's identity may be released once next-of-kin notification is completed.
Saanich Police will continue its investigation with help from Saanich Central Police at the scene of the shooting and seek more information through radio logs.
It is the second external police probe Saanich Police has led.
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- Reporter
- Dharm Makwana currently serves as a web editor at The Province, British Columbia's best read daily newspaper. For more than four years he wrote on issues affecting the Lower Mainland for the province's third largest daily newspaper Vancouver 24 hours. Before arriving in Vancouver in January 2007, Dharm won the John Lott Scholarship for outstanding journalism at Centennial College. Since then Dharm has developed an interest in municipal and provincial politics, crime and policing and social issues including immigration, prostitution and trafficking. He is currently working on a series of stories involving Vancouver's sex workers.
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