A Colombian refugee had been living in shelters supporting women fleeing family violence for the better part of two months before a police officer shot and killed her inside a Surrey home, advocates say.
Metro Vancouver-based Battered Women’s Support Services held a press conference Thursday with front-line workers and relatives of Vanessa Rentería Valencia. They revealed she was trying to escape violence, accessing support services, and was living in a shelter until shortly before her death.
“Vanessa should be alive today,” Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS’ executive director, told Daily Hive. “As a newcomer to Canada, she arrived with hope for herself and her daughter. Only to have her dreams be cut short by an encounter with police.”
A Surrey RCMP officer shot and killed a woman while responding to a disturbance at a home before dawn on September 19. She has been identified by family and advocates as Rentería Valencia.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC, which probes all police incidents resulting in serious injury or death, said the woman was barricaded inside a room with a young child and believed to be holding a weapon.
“Their statement about the disturbance has been very effective in de-humanizing Vanessa in the eyes of the public,” MacDougall said. “Suggesting she had a weapon and implying she’s going to use it on her daughter.”
MacDougall has learned through her work that women living in abusive situations often retreat to bedrooms or bathrooms with their children to create a physical boundary between themselves and those who could harm them.
Rentería Valencia lived in two shelters leading up to her death. The first one closed down, and she was moved to a second, where MacDougall said she didn’t feel safe and struggled with the communal living environment. She had moved back to her previous home shortly before the night she was killed.
Answers sought about police tactics
GoFundMe
There are many questions surrounding the police response to the Surrey home earlier this month. Rentería Valencia spoke Spanish, and it’s not known what language police used to communicate with her or who they used as an interpreter if there was translation.
Police have not said whether a weapon was found in her possession after she was killed.
Surrey RCMP are not providing further comment on what happened because the matter is being investigated by the IIO. The IIO did not answer Daily Hive’s questions about the incident, saying it needs to protect the integrity of the investigation.
“Releasing key details about an incident before an independent investigation has taken place has the potential to unduly influence public perception,” Simon Duker, the IIO’s media and communications liaison, told Daily Hive. “Where possible, the IIO does not specify the weapon type until the role it may have played in an incident has been investigated.”
Police said two other adults were safely removed from the home the morning of September 19, who BWSS believes were the husband and his brother. It added the 18-month-old daughter remains in the care of her father.
Jane Buoy, executive director of Parents Support Services Society, where Rentería Valencia was accessing support, advocated for the child to be returned to the care of her extended family.
“It’s clear that this should never have happened. There’s no excuse for it to have happened,” she said.
Sister seeks Canadian visa to help after death
Two of Vanessa Rentería Valencia’s relatives speak from Colombia through an interpreter at a news conference in Surrey on September 26. (Submitted)
Two of Rentería Valencia’s family members joined the news conference and spoke via an interpreter. They want Canada to approve a visa for Rentería Valencia’s sister to come to the Lower Mainland to have first-hand access to information surrounding her death.
Friends and loved ones have also organized a GoFundMe to benefit Rentería Valencia’s daughter. So far, nearly $5,000 has been raised.
“Vanessa was the most caring person who always put others first and loved her family more than words could express,” organizer Veronica Callisaya wrote.
Her death has sent shockwaves through the community not only in Canada but also in Colombia. Nadia Reveló Bolivar, on the Solidarity Committee for Vanessa Rentería, said BC’s housing crisis worsened Rentería Valencia’s struggle by making it harder for her to live on her own.
“It’s not just for Vanessa. It’s for the rest of the women who need protection but, in the end, are re-victimized,” she said. “Women who are suffering domestic violence cannot find a place to live because they cannot afford it.”