The details of Wednesday’s police response on Nason Street in Quesnel have been confirmed by the authorities, and the Independent Investigation Office of BC has also been officially notified, as the incident resulted in one person sustaining life threatening injuries.
The BC RCMP have confirmed that at 4:28 p.m on Wednesday, April 15th, they received reports that a man in a residence on the 500 block of Nason Street had shot multiple times at his neighbour’s house with a firearm, with some of the rounds striking it.
Officers quickly surrounding the property and established a cordon, evacuating the surrounding neighbourhood, and RCMP say the shooter went quite shortly after they arrived.
Specially trained officers from the North District Emergency Response Team had attempted to make contact with the man inside the residence but received no response.
At around 6:30 p.m, officers had breached the residence and found the lone occupant inside suffering from what they say appeared to be a self inflicted gunshot wound. He was then transported to hospital with serious life-threatening injuries. His current condition is not public.
RCMP confirmed no one else was in the residence at the time, and there were no other injuries associated with the incident. The all clear was given to local residents at 7pm on Wednesday.
No charges related to the incident have been announced.
Independent Investigation Office of BC begins investigation
The Independent Investigation Office has begun it’s investigation into the matter as well, seeking to determine what role the action, or inaction, of responding RCMP officers had played in the way the situation unfolded, and if they had any affect on the injuries sustained.
The IIO has asked any witnesses of the police response on Nason Street to contact their witness line at 1-855-446-8477 or fill out a report via the contact form on their website.
In the time since the shooting, Quesnel residents have raised concers over the fact a public emergency alert was not issued – even though the surrouding neighbourhood was evacuated and residents were ordered to shelter-in-place indoors during a police reponse that lasted for over 2 hours.
Responding to the criticism, Senior Media Relations Officer for E Division HQ, Staff Sergeant Kris Clark, says the situation on Nason Street this week did not meet the threshhold to trigger a public emergecy alert.
Staff Sergeant Clark says the Detachment Commander in Quesnel did intially respond to early local media inquires about the situation, but was not in a position to respond to everyone, and when he himself became aware of the situation, it was already over and the Independent Investiation Office had stepped in to begin their investigation of the RCMP response.
Given the active and ongoing IIO investigation, Staff Sergeant Clark says further comments from the RCMP about the matter will not be forthcoming so as to not compromise it’s work.
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