Mounties and B.C.’s police watchdog are investigating after two people were found dead and a third was seriously injured by officers in a remote B.C. community on Tuesday.
It happened at Tsay Keh Dene, a remote community about 360 kilometres north of Prince George and 260 kilometres west of Fort St. John, at the north end of Williston Lake.
The community is only accessible via chartered flights on small planes or helicopters, or by driving nearly 200 kilometres on logging roads, according to the Tsay Keh Dene Nation’s website.
Police said in a statement that at around 10:30 p.m. PT Tuesday, a caller told Tsay Keh Dene RCMP there were gunshots at a home, and that multiple people were hurt.
Officers say they went to the property and saw a man with a gun who ran into a second home. Police contained him there and negotiators started to talk to the man a few hours later.
The negotiations went on for hours, police said, and an emergency response team (ERT) was brought in.
When negotiations deteriorated, ERT deployed “a chemical irritant” into the home.
The man then left the home with a gun. Police shot him with an “extended range impact munition” — described on the RCMP’s website as “a less lethal weapon that fires large sponge or silicon-tipped rounds” — inflicting serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The Independent Investigations Office, a civilian oversight body that investigates police incidents leading to serious harm or death, said the man suffered “gunshot-related injuries.”
The man, RCMP and the IIO both said, was taken to hospital for treatment.
Police said two people were found dead in the home the man was first seen leaving.
The RCMP North District Major Crime Unit is investigating the two deaths, while the Independent Investigations Office is looking into police actions that led to the man being injured.