IIO Recommends Charges Against Officers In Shooting Death Of Jared Lowndes

BC’s Independent Investigations Office says there are grounds for charges against RCMP officers involved in the fatal shooting of an Indigenous man in Willow Point last year.

The IIO of B.C. said it will file a report with the B.C. Prosecution Service to consider charging the officers over the incident on July 8, 2021.

38 year old Jared Lowndes, who is Wet’suwet’en, was shot in a coffee shop drive-thru as Campbell River police were trying to make an arrest on an outstanding warrant.

At 5:30 a.m., he was in a parked Audi when a Mountie tried to do a police check. Lowndes drove away, making contact with the police vehicle.

At about 9 a.m., officers located and surrounded his car in the drive-through of a business in the 2000-block of South Island Highway. Shots were fired by police and Lowndes, a father of two, was fatally wounded.

Chief civilian director Ronald J. MacDonald said after reviewing the evidence he 'determined that reasonable grounds exist to believe that three officers may have committed offences in relation to various uses of force'.

The IIO said a report will be sent to the prosecution service 'in the coming months', and that it will be up to prosecutors to decide if there is a 'substantial likelihood of conviction' based on its evidence.