Shootings by police hit 15-year high in Vancouver

Experts say brain damage caused by repeated toxic-drug overdoses could be causing increased aggression

Vancouver police fired their guns more times in the first eight months of 2022 than any of the past 15 years, according to a Postmedia analysis of police use of force data.

As of Aug. 31, VPD officers had fired guns in the line of duty six times this year — more than at any year since at least 2007. Two of the shootings were fatal.

The jump in police shootings followed a three-year period from 2018 to 2020 in which no shots were fired by VPD officers.

The increase in shootings coincides with a rise in violent behaviour that many experts associate with an increase in the toxicity of street drugs and a reduction in health and social services because of the pandemic.

Public safety authorities have said that police have been confronted by an increase in interactions with armed subjects, including people carrying firearms.

A report from an expert panel on repeat offenders in B.C. that was released last week suggested that repeated overdoses from B.C.’s toxic drug supply could be contributing to increased aggression.

“The toxic drug supply (is) contributing to unpredictable and sometimes violent, behavioural patterns,” the report authors, Amanda Butler, an SFU criminologist, and Doug LePard, a former VPD deputy chief and former chief of Transit Police, wrote.

“Repeated non-fatal overdoses are resulting in increasing rates of acquired brain injury,” they wrote, “and research has robustly demonstrated that aggression and agitation are common consequences of brain injury.”

In addition, they wrote, “the number of people presenting with methamphetamine-induced psychosis has ‘skyrocketed’ in emergency departments across B.C.”

The VPD’s increased use of firearms tracks closely to provincewide trends, according to Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. He said IIO records show police shootings in B.C. have more than doubled this year compared to last year.

“We’ve had a huge increase in (police) shootings this year in British Columbia,” MacDonald said, noting that in six months “we’ve had 2½ times the number of shootings” than his office would typically investigate.

“It’s spread all over the province,” he said, noting that police have fired their guns in the line of duty in locations as varied as Barriere, Campbell River, Houston, Kamloops, Keremeos, Langley, Nanaimo, Prince George and Saanich, in addition to Surrey and Vancouver.

“There are an unusual number of cases this year that involve firearms or items that look like firearms,” MacDonald said, adding that since investigations continue, he wasn’t able to give specific numbers.

“A high percentage of these cases that involve the individuals who get shot, it appears are in possession of some form of a firearm,” MacDonald said. “And that’s very unusual.”

In two of the six instances in which VPD officers fired guns, suspects had fired at officers, according to Sgt. Steve Addison, a spokesperson for the VPD. Suspects in three incidents had weapons, including one in July in which Addison said an officer was “attacked through the open window of his police car by an armed suspect.”

“The officer remains off-duty with a brain injury,” Addison said.

The sixth shooting involved a bear that had strayed into a residential neighbourhood.

Suspects were killed by police gunfire in two of the five VPD-involved shootings this year, according to the IIO.

In one instance, police shot and killed a man near Commercial Drive after he fired at officers, Addison said. In the other, Addison said officers shot and killed a man while responding to reports of an assault with a weapon inside the Patricia Hotel.

MacDonald wasn’t able to say anything “about the justification of police” in any of the cases but acknowledged that “British Columbia has a higher rate of officer-involved shootings than in the rest of the country.”

ngriffiths@postmedia.com

twitter.com/njgriffiths

More news, fewer ads, faster load time: Get unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites for just $14/month or $140/year. Subscribe now through The Vancouver Sun or The Province.