Dawson Creek police shoot man who refused to throw away weapon, witness claims

A masked man who was shot and killedby police officers in Dawson Creek, B.C.,had refused tothrow away his knife, even as he lay bleeding from his wound, says a witness.

Mike Irmen was walking towarda local restaurant on Thursday evening when he happened upon two officers pointing guns at the suspect. He says there was lots of screaming back and forth as the officers told the suspect to put his weapon down.

And that's when Irmen heard the gunshot.

"I saw the guy fall to the ground on his right. Instantly lots of blood flowing out of him," he says.

"He still refused to remove the knife from his hand or throw it away from his body.He just hung on to it probably a minute or two minutes went by, and then the officers went and booted the knife away from him."

One officer handcuffed the bleeding man and another grabbed a first aid kit from the police car.

The exchange was caught on video and posted to Facebook.

Watch the video. Warning: Disturbing content

RAW: Dawson Creek police shooting. Warning: Disturbing content

9 years ago

Duration 0:16

IIO investigating fatal shooting of masked man in B.C.

Police watchdog investigating

The Independent Investigations Office,the province's police watchdog,has been called to Dawson Creek to look into the shooting, which occurred outside an open house for the controversial Site C dam project.

Initially it was believed police were called to the areabecause of a man causing a disturbance inside the open house.

However the IIO said on Friday evening that the man who was fatally shot by police was not the man who caused the disturbance. Instead, this was another aggressiveman who was carrying a knife and wearing a mask outside the open house.

IIO spokeswoman Kellie Kilpatricksaysthe office would not identify the police officer involved in the shooting.

Kilpatrick saysthis investigation has been one of the most difficult the office has encountered.

"This has a lot of moving parts," she says. "This is the first time that we've had such a significant change in the information we're reporting."

Officials have not released any details about the man who was killed and say they're still trying to identify him.

RCMPsaid in a statement earlier on Fridaythat efforts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessfuland the man was shot during a confrontation.

The man was taken to hospital, but died of his injuries.

Irmen says that when police pulledthe man's mask off which looked to Irmenlike a Guy Fawkes mask the suspect appeared to be a young man.

"I could see right away he was pretty white. There was a big pool of blood where he was laying."

Community in shock

Dawson Creek Mayor DaleBumsteadis upsetthe shootinghappened in a city he brags aboutas being safe.

"Somebody lost their life yesterday, senselessly in my view, and I just hate the fact that it happened in my community," he says.

"You know my heart goes out to the families as well as to theRCMP. It's just unbelievable to me."

Irmensays he feels the officers acted appropriately.

'They did what I feel was correct and protected everyone that was around the same location."

This is the fifth police-related shooting the IIO has responded tosince April 1.

In 2014,there were 11 shootings involving officers, and five in 2013.