B.c. Police Shooting Video Sparks Calls For New Probe

[Satan's Evil Twin]

B.C. police shooting video sparks calls for new probe

Mentally ill man crawling when killed by Vancouver officer's shot

By Curt Petrovich, CBC News

Posted: May 28, 2012 5:58 PM PT

Last Updated: May 28, 2012 10:32 PM PT

New video of a fatal shooting by a Vancouver police officer nearly five years ago is provoking calls to reopen the investigation into whether it was justified.

The video shows the last moments of Paul Boyd, a 39-year-old mentally ill animator, who died after an altercation with Vancouver police in August 2007.

Boyd can be seen on his hands and knees on Granville Street, moving toward Const. Lee Chipperfield, who is pointing a gun.

The view is briefly obscured when Boyd crawls in front of a car, and Chipperfield fires the last of nine shots at him. The fatal bullet struck Boyd in the head.

The disturbing video is the only one known to be recorded of the incident.

It was captured by Andreas Bergen, a tourist from Winnipeg, who was visiting Vancouver with friends. At the time, Bergen didn't think his shaky, dimly lit video was valuable because there were dozens of witnesses closer to the scene than he was.

But in March of this year, B.C.'s police complaint commissioner issued a report, concluding there wasn't "clear, convincing and cogent evidence … that Chipperfield used unnecessary force or excessive force during his incident."

Bergen said he read an account of the decision and became concerned.

"I kind of felt guilty," Bergen told CBC News, "[because] I have the tape and I think the tape will help to resolve some of that confusion. I don't think it was necessary to shoot Paul. Especially not eight times. And especially not in the head."

Not 'excessive in the circumstances'

The video didn't capture the entire event in which Boyd — who was suffering from bipolar disorder and paranoia — fought with police, striking two officers with a bicycle chain and lock.

The video also doesn't show Boyd absorbing punches from police, blows from their batons and even several bullets fired to his midsection, yet not giving up.

Although Chipperfield told investigators he thought Boyd was on his feet when he fired the fatal shot, a psychologist who was consulted by the police complaint commissioner theorized that the stress of the incident rendered the officer "inattentionally blind."

B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch considered the case twice and both times concluded "there is insufficient evidence to establish that the officer's use of force was excessive in the circumstances."

Boyd's father said he appreciates that police have a lot of leeway when it comes to using lethal force. But after seeing the video, David Boyd said he believes Chipperfield should be removed from active duty, if not taken off the force.

"He should never have fired that shot," Boyd said. "I'm sure the police, if they were willing to say so, would agree he never should have fired that shot. He was firing at an unarmed, injured man, at the time."

Boyd said Vancouver police have never apologized for killing his son and, although he has come to terms with his son's death, he still finds the video disturbing.

Boyd said he appreciates for the first time how easily a bystander could have been injured by police gunfire. Chipperfield fired nine shots in total, but six bullets passed through Paul Boyd's body and one missed completely.

"And I'm not even angry at Const. Chipperfield, really. I'm sorry for him, really, if anything. I would hate to be in his skin right now, knowing what he's done."

'Important piece of evidence'

David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the video should lead authorities to re-examine whether the final shot was justified.

"I think that's the question people should be asking themselves when they look at this video and see a man who's disarmed, crawling on the road," Eby said after viewing the sequence.

There is a lull of 23 seconds between the eighth and ninth shots, during which time another officer managed to grab the bike chain Boyd had been wielding.

B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch said after Boyd was killed, a pair of Vise-Grip pliers was found in his pocket.

But Eby said the video makes it clear to him that Boyd posed no threat to anyone before the final shot.

"I say a police officer needs to look at a scenario where someone is disarmed and crawling on the road, and say, 'I'm not gonna shoot this person in the head.' I would like them to make that call."

Eby wants B.C. police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe to take another look at the case.

Lowe told CBC News that the video "appears to be a very important piece of evidence … I think probably the Criminal Justice Branch would be very interested in having a view."

The Vancouver Police Department turned down an invitation to see the video and declined to comment on whether it's significant.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/05/28/bc-police-shooting-video-paul-boyd-killed-while-crawling.html

[pimpcurtly]

I read in the Province today that a probe has been opened.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

I read in the Province today that a probe has been opened.

[pimpcurtly]

Good. The video leaves little question that it's warranted.

[Pears]

'Mentally ill' and 'crawling' and 'cop killing someone'. That happened down in Miami too right?

[Denguin]

Yes I agree. The guy disappears behing a car but it seems that he was posing little to no threat at that point. Just worries me that Alberta police will conduct the investigation. Shouldn't it be an independant third party? Hard to trust cops these days.

[canucks since 77]

Canada's new police commisioner must be getty pretty twitchy by now. Seems a day can't go by without another scandal landing on his desk.

[s_man422]

Canada's new police commisioner must be getty pretty twitchy by now. Seems a day can't go by without another scandal landing on his desk.

[Buddhas Hand]

After the doors closed

October 22, 2008

• Read later

The AGE

Some two decades after institutions were abandoned, Jill Stark examines how well society is tackling mental health crises.

SHE WAS found naked, wandering through a suburban backyard in the early hours of a wintry Melbourne morning. When police arrived she was incoherent, unable to tell them who she was or where she came from.

By the time psychiatric nurse Steve Nedelkos arrived at the police station the woman — who suffered from schizophrenia — was draped in a sheet. She should have been wearing fresh clothes provided by police officers, but the clothes were soaking wet — she'd refused to take them off while taking a shower.

As manager of the North East Crisis Assessment and Treatment (CAT) Service — one of 21 teams in Victoria providing 24-hour support for people experiencing acute psychiatric episodes — Nedelkos calmed the woman and began driving to a nearby hospital. Having a naked woman in his car was not a peculiar turn of events for a man who has witnessed bizarre extremes of behaviour. But then, the unthinkable. He ran out of petrol.

"I was mortified," he recalls. "My comment to her was, 'Madame, you are to wait in this car. Do not go anywhere, do not open the door.' I ran a kilometre back to the hospital and picked up another car. When I got back she could see the humour of it. She turned to me and said, 'I must say, Steven, this has been quite an adventure for you.' "

A sense of humour is essential for the nurses, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists in Victoria's CAT teams. Mental illness can play out like tragicomedy, particularly in times of crisis. Staff speak of rescuing a man so scared by voices in his

head that he took refuge in a wombat hole for two days. Or the grateful patient who wanted to reward the team with marijuana joints.

But sometimes there is only tragedy. Helpless parents watching their bright young son tormented by his first psychotic delusions. The mother so overcome by grief at the death of a child that she herself has lost the will to live.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first CAT teams, largely introduced to replace austere psychiatric hospitals, condemned as inhumane and rife with abuse.

The teams — of which the North East service was the first — were designed to take pressure off public hospitals by assessing acute patients in their own environments and admitting only the most seriously ill to beds. They would take calls from people in distress and referrals from family members, police and GPs. Patients would be seen in the community if necessary and given follow-up care to help them and families manage their condition. It would remove the stigma of mental illness and be a more humane system.

It was a sound theory. Mental health workers who had watched patients deteriorate in filthy, unsafe wards recognised that the system had to change. But critics argued that deinstitutionalisation, pushed in particular by the Kennett government, would leave vulnerable people without round-the-clock care. AND IN THE EARLY YEARS AFTER POLICE HEAD SHOT DEAD A FEW MENTALLY ILL MEN, there were fears the new "caring" system had left patients and the public hopelessly exposed.

Twenty years later, then, with all but one of Victoria's public psychiatric hospitals shut down, has community care delivered better treatment for patients?

Not according to a report recently released by the Minister for Mental Health, Lisa Neville, which paints a grim picture of an overwhelmed system on the brink of meltdown.

Because mental health matters — the Victorian Government's vision for the future of mental health services — shows CAT teams are struggling to cope with a massive surge in demand. Factors exacerbating the problem include a booming population, growing numbers of people with co-existing drug and alcohol problems and greater awareness and detection of people with mental illnesses. Last year CAT teams saw 28,600 people — an increase of 13% from 2001.

The report reveals huge gaps in treatment, with demand so great the system is failing to meet the needs of even the sickest individuals. More than 44% of the 150,000 Victorians with a severe mental illness (such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) are not receiving help from any public or private service.

When they are in crisis, often the only option for overstretched CAT teams is to refer people to emergency departments, which are struggling with a surge in mental health presentations — jumping from just under 30,000 a year in 2001 to 46,500 last year.

This crisis-driven system has created a "revolving door" for many patients who, without follow-up care, are vulnerable to relapse. They are also at greater risk of involvement with the criminal justice system, substance abuse and homelessness

as the article stated this started in the mid 90's and i seem to remember seeing a figure more like 25 shooting 's , not all of them fatal though . i hope you guys are not going down the same path kennett started to lead us down nearly 20 years ago and mentally ill people are still having fatal confrontations with the police .

[canucks since 77]

The RCMP commissioner has little to do with a VPD officer.

[Buddhas Hand]

Australia: Police gun down 15-year-old boy

By Katrina Morrison

17 December 2008

Fifteen-year-old Tyler Cassidy was shot dead by police officers in Melbourne, Victoria last Thursday night in a callous and brutal act. Four officers surrounded the agitated youth at a skate park in the suburb of Northcote and killed him in a hail of at least six bullets. The shooting has sparked public outrage and recalled the filthy record of Victorian police, who have become notorious for opening fire on anyone perceived as a threat, including the young and mentally ill.

A full account of the events leading up to Tyler's death is yet to emerge. What is known so far is that on Thursday evening the youth reportedly arrived at his home in a disturbed state, after having possibly been assaulted on a train. He then walked to K-Mart, pulled two knives from their packaging and stabbed items on the shelves. By around 9.30 p.m., several people had called the police. Four officers quickly arrived on the scene; one reportedly used capsicum spray without effect. Tyler ran to an adjoining skate park where he was again doused with a shot of capsicum spray before being shot dead when three of the four officers opened fire.

Police authorities immediately defended the officers involved, claiming that they had acted correctly and had no choice but to shoot the youth. Greg Davies, a spokesman for the Police Association, insisted: "These members behaved in a completely professional and appropriate way and in accordance with their training." Davies noted that police guidelines state that whenever officers use their guns they must aim for the victim's chest—effectively a shoot-to-kill policy. He contemptuously brushed aside arguments that the priority should be to preserve life by aiming only to disarm or immobilise: "anyone who thinks that you can shoot a weapon out of someone's hand watches too many spaghetti westerns, that's just the way it is."

There has been no satisfactory explanation as to why it was not possible for four trained adult police officers to subdue the young boy without opening fire. One officer, apparently violating protocol, fired a warning shot into the ground moments before Tyler was killed—contradicting the police line that it was impossible to attempt to immobilise the boy by shooting at his arms or legs. And according to a report in Tuesday's Herald Sun, one of the three officers who opened fire had indeed aimed for Tyler's legs; he had several bullet wounds in his legs and chest.

There are many outstanding questions. Why did it take five days after the event for it to emerge that one of the officers had initially attempted to subdue Tyler by shooting him in the legs rather than the chest? Only three of the four officers involved fired on Tyler. Is this because, as the police now claim, another officer was standing in the way, blocking the line of fire? Or was it because this officer judged that resorting to gunfire was unnecessary?

There is also substantial evidence indicating that the police should never have permitted the situation to develop to the point where they felt they had to open fire. Shani Cassidy, Tyler's mother, had initially called the police when her son left the house to go to K-Mart to warn them he was in an agitated state and to ask that she be contacted if he were found.

The Cassidy family released a statement the day after the police killing. "The entire family and friends of Tyler Cassidy are appalled at the actions by the Victoria Police last night," it read. "Their heavy-handedness, and lack of negotiating skills at the scene of the shooting, contributed to the untimely death of our beautiful 15 year old. He was in the prime of his life, had just started a new school, and was coping really well. He was a popular student with high expectations and a good network of friends. The Northcote police were notified 30 minutes prior to the killing and briefed completely on what had happened including what he was wearing and to look out for Tyler.

"The four officers concerned acted unacceptably by killing Tyler last night. He had a very gentle side, striving to grow from a boy into a young man and would have been completely overwhelmed by the situation. The police according to our witnesses chased him, cornered him at the skate park in Northcote, he was surrounded and gunned down by four officers firing at least six or seven shots. Our eyewitness confirmed that Tyler patted her dog, was confronted by the police and sprayed with capsicum foam, then pursued to the skate park, surrounded and hunted down. We look forward to a serious and thorough investigation and inquest into why Tyler was killed and to the serious nature of the attending officers' actions. It should have been dealt with differently and more compassionately, but tragically resulted in Tyler's death that should have been avoided."

Hariet Stewart, who was in the park at the time, and saw Tyler running towards the skate park, commented: "There appeared to be enough police cars coming and it doesn't justify how they would have found themselves in a situation where they had to shoot a child. I think it is outrageous. He was only a child."

The eyewitness referred to in the Cassidy family statement wrote a letter to the Age which was published on Tuesday: "My partner and I were faced with someone with a weapon on Thursday night. Tyler Cassidy passed us near the bottle shop in the car park. I did not, however, encounter someone ‘violent and irrational' or ‘angry'. I cannot comment on Tyler's behaviour before, when he was in the shopping centre, or after, when he was with the police, but I can remark on our encounter with him minutes before he was shot. He bent and patted our dog. We did not feel threatened. Nervous maybe. We saw an agitated boy who was crying out for some attention. We saw a kid who needed to talk to someone... In terms of our own safety, we regard ourselves as lucky that we came across Tyler near the bottle shop and were not coming from the park minutes later, when there was police gunfire. We feel sadness and confusion over what has happened and our hearts go out to his mother.

this has always been a concern of mine and i have just learned since 1987 there have been 42 fatal shooting's of mentally ill people in my state/province alone . i really hope that it does not come to this in your beautiful country .

[Mr. Ambien]

^ 5 year old links are irrelevant.

When someone is perceived as a threat justifying that much force whether or not they are mentally ill is moot as well. Sorry mentally ill person but you are just as liable of being killed as anyone else. Life's not always fair, avoid these situations and find thyself not in a position to get killed. Is it really that tough?

As for this situation, it should be reopened, cop should be hung by his balls if he shot the guy in the head while was slowly crawling on the ground and disarmed of his weapon. They know how to react, jump on the guy and disable/arrest him. There's cases where excessive Monday Morning quarterbacking might be an issue but police are highly trained and advised on how to deal with someone who changes from an immense physical threat on their feet to disarmed and vulnerable on the ground or on their knees. I hope more proof of what happened comes around so that if this guy was flat out murdered by a trigger happy cop justice can be served.

[Buddhas Hand]

^ 5 year old links are irrelevant.

When someone is perceived as a threat justifying that much force whether or not they are mentally ill is moot as well. Sorry mentally ill person but you are just as liable of being killed as anyone else. Life's not always fair, avoid these situations and find thyself not in a position to get killed. Is it really that tough?

As for this situation, it should be reopened, cop should be hung by his balls if he shot the guy in the head while was slowly crawling on the ground and disarmed of his weapon. They know how to react, jump on the guy and disable/arrest him. There's cases where excessive Monday Morning quarterbacking might be an issue but police are highly trained and advised on how to deal with someone who changes from an immense physical threat on their feet to disarmed and vulnerable on the ground or on their knees. I hope more proof of what happened comes around so that if this guy was flat out murdered by a trigger happy cop justice can be served.