Vancouver, B.C. – The Criminal Justice Branch has announced that it will not be advancing
any criminal charges against a VPD officer who shot mentally ill man Paul Boyd eight times in
2007. In a report attached to the decision, the CJB advises that:
- only one officer fired on Mr. Boyd, no other police officers fired a shot; some attending police officers didn‟t unholster their firearms;
- the shooting officer fired at least four shots after a direction had been given to the attending officers to “hold their fire;”
- Mr. Boyd was hit by at least four bullets and possibly five bullets after he was completely disarmed, including the final bullet that hit Mr. Boyd in the head when Mr. Boyd was crawling;
- the shooting officer said he believed Mr. Boyd was wearing body armour, and that Mr. Boyd was standing almost vertical and not crawling when he shot Mr. Boyd in the head;
- the shooting officer said he recalled shooting four bullets, but actually fired nine.
The investigation of the actions of the involved VPD officers was conducted by the VPD. That report was forwarded to the Criminal Justice Branch. There is no information about whether the VPD recommended charges to the CJB based on the investigation outcome. “Had there been criminal charges arising from this death, they would have been the first in B.C. history for a police-involved death, so we‟re hardly surprised that the VPD investigation of the VPD resulted in this decision,” said BCCLA Executive Director David Eby.
“The CJB has acted as judge and jury and prevented this serious set of allegations from going to the truth finding process of trial, something that simply wouldn‟t happen for a member of the public,” said Eby. “If the outcome was so uncertain it took two years of investigation to come to
this point, how can the CJB argue in good faith that a criminal conviction was ‘not possible‟ on the evidence?”
Criminal Justice Branch Statement >>
MEDIA CONTACTS:
David Eby, Executive Director, BCCLA (778) 865-7997
Robert Holmes, President, BCCLA (604)681-1310 or (604) 838-6856
