A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer was shot and killed during a confrontation while executing a search warrant in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said 51-year-old officer Rick O’Brien was killed and two other officers were injured, while a suspect was shot and is also hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mr. McDonald said Officer O’Brien died instantly.
Policing was a second career for Mr. O’Brien, who worked with vulnerable youth before joining the RCMP in 2016.
Mr. McDonald noted that Mr. O’Brien led by example, was respected by his peers, was loved in his community, had a great sense of humor and is survived by his wife and children .
The deputy commissioner says he is outraged to see police officers killed across the country while trying to protect their communities.
Witnessing events in the busy city area, Carley Hodges said she saw one police officer being taken out of a building on a stretcher while he underwent chest compressions, and a second officer bleeding from a leg. with a tourniquet installed on the wound.
Ms Hodges said she saw a man handcuffed and described a chaotic scene, with “tons of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks” arriving at the scene.
The City of Pitt Meadows said in a statement that the Ridge Meadows RCMP lost an officer on Friday, and expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the victims as well as local officers.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken over leading the investigation into the officer’s death and the injuries of his colleagues, while the Independent Investigations Office will investigate the police actions.