Police have not confirmed the man’s identity, but the family of Chris Amyotte, an Ojibway man from Manitoba, said he was the one who died in the Downtown Eastside. Amyotte’s cousin, Samantha Wilson, said witnesses told her she was bear sprayed and calling for help before police arrived at the scene and Amyotte was unarmed. Sgt. Steve Addison of the Vancouver Police Department said the Bureau of Independent Investigations, B.C.’s police watchdog, had jurisdiction over the investigation. However, he said the VPD believed the man who died “asked for help from several bystanders, who did not offer help.” WATCHES | Samantha Wilson talks about her cousin’s death in Vancouver:
The family is speaking out about a man who died after being shot by a police officer
The cousin of Chris Amyotte, the man identified as the person who died after being shot by Vancouver police with a beanbag gun, says the family is still processing Amyotte’s unexpected death and wants more answers from police. “When our officers arrived, they attempted to make verbal contact with the male. Witnesses reported a confrontation,” he said in an emailed statement Thursday. Addison, who said at a press conference Monday that a shotgun was used, called the weapon a “safe and effective less lethal tool.” “It is used as an alternative to lethal force and can be deployed against a person who is acting violently or exhibiting aggressive behavior,” Addison said in the statement. He said the IIO would determine whether the man who died had a gun, but “possession of a gun is not required to deploy a beanbag shotgun.”
“Chris didn’t deserve to die”
On Thursday, the Atira Women’s Resource Society in BC released a statement on Amyotte’s death on behalf of his family, saying two of his brothers and a sister-in-law work for Atira. She described him as a “father, grandfather, husband, brother and uncle” who was “always joking” and “sarcastic”. Family has identified Chris Amyotte, 42, as the man who died after being shot by Vancouver police with a bean bag gun. (Submitted by Samantha Wilson) The family says Amyotte was born on the Ditibineya-ziibiing (Rolling River) First Nation in southern Manitoba where he was well known in the community and was survived by eight children. “Whatever happened on the morning of August 22, Chris did not deserve to die,” the statement said, adding that the family expects a “thorough and fair” investigation. “As a First Nations man, this is not the first time Chris has been harmed by a police force.”
“It’s time to stop”
The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples said it was “outraged” to hear of the death. Kim Beaudin, the organisation’s national vice-president, said in a statement on Thursday that the incident was a tragedy that highlighted the “profound and ongoing failures of police when dealing with indigenous peoples at risk”. “Indigenous people are 10 times more likely to be shot and killed by police in Canada and it’s time for it to stop,” he said in the statement. Wilson said Amyotte arrived in Vancouver on Aug. 17 to visit family members. Days later, the family would learn he had died, Wilson said. “It’s not something you expect to be told. I’m very angry,” she said in an interview Thursday. Listen | VPD Sgt. Steve Addison on Downtown Eastside policing and the death of Chris Amyotte: On The Coast11:44 VPD’s Sgt. Steve Addison on the current state of policing in the DTES Last Sunday, officers were tipped off that guns and drugs were stored in a tent near Hastings and Carral. They arrested four men and seized two guns, including a loaded shotgun found inside a tent. And on Monday, a 42-year-old man named Chris Amyotte died after being shot multiple times by Vancouver police with a beanbag gun. Sgt. Steve Addison from the VPD joins us to discuss policing right now. After hearing the news, Wilson said she looked on social media to see if she could get more information. She said she contacted witnesses who told her Amyotte was the victim of a bear spray attack and was calling for help when he took off some of his clothes and started pouring milk on himself to try to fight off the spray. A Vancouver police press release said Monday that a man was taken into custody after an “interaction” with officers, but suffered a medical problem and lost consciousness. “Despite life-saving efforts, the man died at the scene,” the statement said. Chris Amyotte in a 2016 photo. (Submitted by Samantha Wilson) The IIO said Tuesday it was called in to investigate the incident, which began with calls to police responding to a report of a man acting erratically. He said an investigation has been launched to determine what, if any, police actions or inactions played a role in the man’s death. Wilson said she would like to see the officers involved held accountable. “I’d like to see them charged. He called for help multiple times. (Witnesses) said he’s not a threat to public safety, he wasn’t trying to hurt anybody. They said he had his hands up in the air before he was shot. He didn’t have a gun .He had a jug of milk in his hand,” he said. “He was an unarmed native who was calling for help and when help arrived, they took his life.” He said Amyotte’s family members from Manitoba traveled to Vancouver to help arrange for Amyotte’s body to be transported to Rolling River, where he will be buried. “My nieces and nephews have to live without their father,” Wilson said. “My family is making arrangements to bring him home and we don’t even know if these officers are on administrative leave or if you’re still working the streets. We don’t know anything.”
Beanbag gun shots were not located
While the IIO said it cannot comment on specific cases, spokeswoman Rebecca Whalen said there have been 16 shootings in BC since the start of its fiscal year in April. That, he said, has already doubled the eight shootings he investigated last year. “There are more (shootings) this year,” she said in an interview Thursday. “Now, I can’t speculate why that might be — there could be any number of reasons — but all we know is that there’s been an increase this year.” However, he noted that a beanbag gun would not be classified as firing a firearm, and would instead fall under the use of force category. “We don’t actually track statistics on the use of a beanbag gun,” he said. In its 2021-22 annual report, the office reported 39 incidents of use of force last year. It reported that the use of force was “the main cause of serious harm in 28 per cent of all serious harm investigations”. Former West Vancouver police chief and former BC Public Safety Minister Kash Heed says shotguns equipped to fire cartridges are identified by a brightly colored barrel to mark them as a “less lethal option.” “It’s an ammo that’s compressed into something that looks like a shotgun and is discharged from a shotgun,” he told the CBC. “It’s meant to stun [an individual] for that fleeting second where officers can consider what option they have at that point or take the person into custody,” he said. Hind says he’s never seen anyone die just from being hit by a bean bag.
