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Police watchdog discontinues investigation

Independent Investigations Office finds no connection between Sicamous RCMP and man’s injuries
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Heather Black photo Sicamous RCMP and Emergency Health Services paramedics responded to a report of a man who had self-inflicted wounds near the Maier Rd. car wash on Tuesday, Aug. 8.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. has found no connection between the actions of Sicamous RCMP and a man who was sent to hospital with self-inflicted injuries.

IIO spokesperson Aidan Buckley provided the update in an Wednesday interview.

He said the IIO had subsequently discontinued its investigation of the incident, which occurred in the vicinity of a Maier Road car wash and service station in the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 8.

“In order for the IIO to investigate an incident, we’re notified by the police and, in order for us to continue an investigation, it has to meet kind of like a two-part test, one being the presence of serious harm, and the second being a connection to police action,” explained Buckley. “So if both of those tests are met, we’ll continue investigating. In this incident, there is no connection between the injuries sustained and the actions of the police, so we released jurisdiction back to the RCMP.”

A police report released late Tuesday night states at 11:26 a.m. that day, Sicamous RCMP received a report of a man who was allegedly threatening to kill himself with a knife near the car wash. Responding officers asked Emergency Health Services to attend.

Upon arrival, the officers found the man with what appeared to be self-inflicted wounds.

“The man then ran away from police while allegedly continuing to injure himself with a weapon,” states the report.

“A police officer proceeded to run after the man on foot into a nearby gas station parking lot while issuing verbal commands to the man to drop the weapon. The police officer equipped with a conducted energy weapon (CEW) continued to verbally engage the man who eventually got to his knees on the ground. The CEW was not deployed and the man was apprehended without further incident.”

The two officers on the scene provided immediate first aid until Emergency Health Services paramedics arrived. The man was then transported to hospital in Salmon Arm for treatment.

As per protocol, IIO was contacted by police following the incident.

Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil said the man was not from Sicamous and that he had heard the man had undergone surgery. McNeil added family members were with the man in hospital.

“It was a really unfortunate incident,” said McNeil. “It was a young person having a crisis moment, and we were very fortunate that he didn’t lose his life. He sustained some very significant injuries, self-inflicted, and we were lucky we were able to deal with that… hopefully he’s getting the care he needs.”