WARNING: This story discusses self-harm
An off-duty police officer from Surrey died from a self-inflicted injury in an incident at a North Langley gun range on Wednesday.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that it has launched an investigation into the incident.
According to an IIO statement, police officers arrived at the scene on 201st Street, attempting to locate a man in distress. The site of the incident appears to have been The Range, a Langley indoor gun range.
“The man, who was identified as an off-duty member of the Surrey Police Service, sustained a serious injury that appears to have been self-inflicted while police were in the building,” said the IIO statement. “The man was subsequently pronounced deceased.”
Multiple Langley RCMP, fire, and ambulance vehicles converged on the area around 201st Street and 98th Avenue in Walnut Grove shortly after 1 p.m.
There were at least eight RCMP vehicles, two fire trucks, and an ambulance on scene by 1:40 p.m., and 201st Street was temporarily closed.
Langley RCMP Cpl. Craig Van Herk confirmed they were investigating reports of a distraught man at The Range.
The IIO is an arms-length civilian unit that investigates any incident in which a person is seriously injured or killed during an interaction with police. That includes people who are shot or injured in a direct interaction with police, as well as people who are injured in other ways, such as in vehicle collisions after a traffic stop. The IIO looks into whether or not police action or inaction may have played in civilian deaths.
A message on The Range’s Facebook page said they would be closed for the rest of the day Wednesday.
– more to come
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