Sun reporters Glenn Bohn and Petti Fong tell the harrowing tale. 'They were terrified. They had never met this guy before. It was out of the blue'
| Glenn Bohn and Petti Fong | |
| Vancouver Sun |
 |
CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun |
Police say three men in a black Honda
Prelude got out of their vehicle and confronted a Port Moody officer on
this street. A witness said he heard 'between three and five" gunshots,
then called 911. |
 |
CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun |
Police take measurements around an
unmarked Port Moody police vehicle on St. George Street, where an
officer fatally shot a man Monday. |
| |
The dead man had a machete; the shooter was a police officer. Just
minutes after two women who were driving along a busy Port Moody
intersection at 2 a.m. Monday told police they were randomly attacked
by three men, a police officer shot and killed a man in his 20s and
wounded another.
A third man, who was not injured, was arrested.
The officer is now on sick leave from the force and undergoing counselling. He is a 25-year veteran of policing, a former RCMP officer who has been with the Port Moody detachment for two years.
The whole incident happened in the span of minutes.
Port Moody Constable Brian Soles, the media spokesman for the detachment, recounted the events Monday.
The violence began just after 2 a.m. when the two women were in their car at the intersection of Moray Avenue and St. John's Street, the busy, east-west street that runs through the commercial centre of Port Moody.
The women told police that a car approached their vehicle from the rear and began hitting it, as if it was going to push the women's car out of the way.
Soles said three men were in the other car -- a black Honda Prelude.
The women said they didn't know the men and were soon the target of an unprovoked attack.
"One male [in the Prelude] got out with a machete, totally out of control, and started smashing [the women's car], hitting it several times," Soles said in an interview.
"They were terrified. They had never met this guy before. There was no prior history on the road, like a road rage incident. It was out of the blue."
The man with the machete broke one of the windows of the women's car, then returned to the Prelude, which sped away.
The women went to a nearby gas station in the 3000-block of St. John's, where a Port Moody police officer happened to have just arrived. While the women were telling the officer about the machete attack, the three men returned in the Prelude.
The officer pursued the Prelude in his police car along St. John's to nearby Electronic Avenue, a two-block dead-end street.
Soles said the Prelude made a U-turn on Electronic, then turned directly toward the police cruiser. The officer drove to one side of the road to avoid the oncoming vehicle and allowed the Prelude to pass, then radioed a description of it for other officers on duty.
Coincidentally, another police officer in an unmarked car was coming down Clarke Road -- a steep street between Coquitlam and Port Moody -- when the officer saw the Prelude come up Clarke and turn left on to the 2000-block of St. George Street.
At that point, St. George is another short, dead-end street. There are six 1970s-era suburban houses there.
What happened next would keep those houses behind a yellow police ribbon for most of the day.
Omar Sachedina, a university student, was working on a computer in one of the houses.
Sachedina said the family home is near a pub and a high school, so it's not unusual to hear drunks or loud sounds at night.
"Normally, I just drown out the noises, but last night I heard between three and five gunshots and called 911 right away," he said.
While he was talking to the emergency dispatcher, more police cars were already arriving at the scene.
Soles said the three men got out their vehicle and confronted the lone police officer, whom he would only identify as a veteran officer with more than 25 years of police experience.
Soles said what specifically occurred just before the shooting is unknown as the incident is still being investigated by police. But Soles estimated the man with the machete was "within 10 feet" or about three metres away from the police officer when the officer fired and shot the man.
"A knife can kill you just as surely as a bullet, especially when it's in close proximity to you," Soles said.
Sachedina didn't witness the actual shooting, but he looked through his window after he heard the gunshots. Sachedina noted it was dark and there was a lot of activity, but he saw one man being taken away on a stretcher and another man lying on the street.
"He was wailing and hitting the cement," he said. "He seemed to be in a lot of pain. He was expressing some sort of regret, but I couldn't quite catch the words."
The man with the machete died in an ambulance on the way to hospital of gunshot injuries.
Soles said the police officer in the unmarked car also shot a second man from the Prelude, who was later taken to hospital, where he was treated for a bullet wound in the pelvis area.
The third man in the Prelude was arrested at the scene.
Sachedina, who had recently visited New York City, was surprised that tragedy occurred just outside the family home.
"This is the sort of stuff you expect in New York, not Port Moody," he said.
No names of those involved in the incident have been released. A homicide investigation, customary whenever police are involved in a fatal shooting, has been launched.
The officer, who was not injured, is undergoing counselling.
"He was very shaken up, like any one of us would be," said Soles. "We have a critical incident stress team that's talking to him now."
Police chief Paul Shrive said that when the police investigation of the shooting is complete, recommendations about whether charges are warranted against the officer will be forwarded to Crown counsel.
After the criminal investigation, the coroner's office will begin its investigation, as required whenever a police officer is involved in a death of a suspect.
Shrive said he will also forward a report to the Port Moody police board.
"The officer is particularly anxious to know more details about the incident. He's anxious to have an explanation about how he found himself in this situation," Shrive said.
Counselling teams are also talking to the 34 police officers on the Port Moody detachment. The last time an officer fired a fatal shot in Port Moody was 1990.
Last year in B.C., one person was killed by police in a shooting, according to statistics from the attorney-general's office. There were no such shootings in 2001, one in 2000 and four in 1999.
gbohn@png.canwest.com