The union that represents RCMP members says a shooting by an officer in Thompson Oct. 25 was necessary because the man he shot was not responding to other attempts to de-escalate the situation.
Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation (NPF), which represents about 20,000 Mounties in Canada and abroad, said the union’s sympathies are with both the man who was shot, identified by family only as Little Ray, 30, and the officer who shot him, described by Manitoba RCMP’s commanding officer as a caring and capable veteran of the force.
“Our thoughts are with the subject, his family and friends and we wish him a full and speedy recovery,” said a written statement by Sauvé. “Our thoughts are also with our member as these are very traumatic events, that can have life altering and lasting impacts.”
Sauvé said the officer’s actions protected himself as well as members of the pubic and other police officers from a man who was holding a knife.
“Despite our member making numerous attempts to calm the suspect and de-escalate the situation, the armed suspect did not respond or calm down, resulting in our member discharging their service pistol to protect himself and the public from this threat,” wrote Sauvé. “Thanks to his professionalism, no member of the public or other members were injured in the incident.”
The family of Little Ray said during an Oct. 27 press conference that they believed the officer could have used non-violent intervention strategies to de-escalate the situation.
Use of force by RCMP officers is a rarely employed last resort, Sauvé said, Of the three million calls for service that the RCMP deals with annually, less than one-tenth of one per cent (0.1 per cent) involve any force being used.
“Policing in Canada is highly regulated, with strong internal and independent external oversight,” said Sauvé. “We support the Manitoba Independent Investigation Unit’s investigation of this incident and would like to emphasize that it is critically important their work is conducted without speculation and supposition regarding the outcome, and free from undue or inappropriate external influence.”
