WARNING: This story accommodates graphic content material and particulars of violence that some readers might discover disturbing.
A video has surfaced on social media exhibiting a Vancouver police officer shooting an Indigenous man with a bean bag gun — an incident which occurred in August and is the topic of an investigation into police’s use of drive.
Chris Amyotte, a 42-year-old father of eight from Winnipeg who was visiting household in Vancouver, died on Aug. 22 after an communication with Vancouver cops on the Downtown Eastside throughout which he was shot with a bean bag gun.
The Ojibway man’s dying has drawn requires police accountability from his household who say Amyotte was shot whereas unarmed and calling for assist. Witnesses and the Vancouver Police Department have confirmed he was asking for assist.
The incident is the topic of an investigation by the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), B.C.’s civilian-led police oversight company, into whether or not police use of drive was acceptable.
Video shows lead-up to shooting
The video, the primary footage of the incident to be shared publicly, was initially posted on TikTok on Aug. 26, simply days after the shooting.
The three-and-a-half minute clip, which seems to be filmed from an condo a number of storeys up throughout the road, shows Amyotte leaving Laxmi Convenience on East Hastings Street on the morning of Aug. 22.
In the video, Amyotte is bare and holding a white jug, which he repeatedly pours over his head, emptying what seems to be milk over himself.
The occasions within the video match the outline from witnesses who mentioned Amyotte was in misery from a bear mace assault and was making an attempt to relieve the burning sensation by eradicating his garments and dousing himself in milk.
WARNING: This video depicts graphic content material and violence. CBC News has edited it for size.
A video initially posted by TikTok person tarajones65 shows Chris Amyotte within the moments earlier than he was shot by Vancouver police with a bean bag gun.
Amyotte wanders up and down the sidewalk within the 300-block of Hastings Street, pouring milk over himself as half a dozen bystanders watch.
Approximately 90 seconds into the video, a police car pulls up and two officers exit and method Amyotte.
The Indigenous man walks away shortly from the officers, who’re joined by extra officers, one of whom is holding a protracted gun pointed in direction of Amyotte, who all of the sudden crumbles to the sidewalk and is surrounded by police.
The one who posted the video, a TikTok person recognized as Tara Jones, commented that CPR was carried out on Amyotte as he lay on the sidewalk for over an hour.
Samantha Wilson, Amyotte’s cousin, informed CBC she’s grateful the video exists as a result of it solutions rather a lot of questions on his final moments.
“When I got here throughout it, it introduced rather a lot of disgrace,” she mentioned. “There was no dignity for him in it. And you can see the panic, you can see the panic and in his actions and he was afraid … he was alone.”
Wilson has been conscious of the video’s existence for months and posted it on her personal Twitter account on Tuesday. Despite the preliminary disgrace she felt seeing it, she now feels it must be shared and considered broadly.
She says the video has solely bolstered her household’s perception that police’s use of drive was not justified.
“I’ve rather a lot of questions so far as their ways for de-escalation as a result of within the video they adopted him very carefully,” she mentioned.
“They rattling properly knew that he was unarmed and he wasn’t a menace to anybody primarily based on all of the bystanders who had been there.”
IIO director says video is ‘useful’
The IIO says till CBC News shared the video with them Thursday morning, they’d no information of its existence.
“We do have video of that occasion from a unique angle than this,” Chief Civilian Director Ron MacDonald informed CBC. “This does supply one other perspective and could be very useful.”
MacDonald says IIO investigators beforehand canvassed the neighbourhood and spoke to many witnesses. He says this newest video shows extra of what occurred earlier than police arrived.
“That sort of video helps us corroborate or not corroborate another statements that we’ve acquired about how the person was appearing and what he was doing prior to the arrival of police,” he mentioned.
MacDonald says these info are related to figuring out whether or not the drive utilized by police on this case was acceptable.
CBC News reached out to the VPD for remark however was informed to contact the IIO.
In the weeks after Amyotte’s dying, VPD acknowledged in a press release that Amyotte “did ask for assist from a quantity of bystanders, who didn’t supply help.”
The assertion additionally mentioned officers tried to “talk with the man verbally” after they arrived and that witnesses reported a confrontation.
VPD Sgt. Steve Addison has mentioned a bean bag shotgun is “a secure and efficient less-lethal software” and “is used in its place to deadly drive and could be deployed in opposition to an individual who’s appearing violently or displaying assaultive behaviour.”