Delta cop defends deadly shooting
COURT DOCUMENTS GIVE OFFICER’S ACCOUNT OF STANDOFF
A Delta cop who is charged with murder for shooting an armed man in a 2012 standoff fired his rifle “in response to the threat” posed by the “distraught and violent” man pointing his handgun at a group of police officers, recently filed court documents allege.
The court documents, filed on behalf of the Delta constable in response to a civil claim from the dead man’s daughter, paint a more detailed — and substantially different — picture of that morning’s events than described in the daughter’s original claim filed five months ago.
On Nov. 8, 2012, a five-hour police standoff came to an end when Mehrdad Bayrami, 48, was shot and killed outside the Starlight Casino in New Westminster.
After a probe by B.C.’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, Crown counsel last October approved a charge of second-degree murder against Const. Jordan MacWilliams of the Delta Police — a rare instance of a Canadian cop charged with murder in the line of duty.
While MacWilliams’ criminal case works its way through the courts, the constable concurrently faces the civil suit filed by Bayrami’s daughter last November in B.C. Supreme Court, naming the officer and the Corporation of Delta as defendants.
Nousha Bayrami’s notice of claim alleges her father’s “wrongful death” has deprived her of “his love, care, guidance and support,” and that MacWilliams is “guilty of gross negligence or malicious or wilful misconduct.”
Her claim alleges that at the standoff’s critical and fatal moment, her father Mehrdad Bayrami was “walking backwards away from the peace officers with both arms by his sides” when MacWilliams unlawfully shot him, “suddenly, without warning or justification.”
This key allegation, and others, are disputed in the defendant’s response to the claim, filed last week.
The response describes the morning of Nov. 8, 2012, beginning with a 911 call from a Starlight Casino employee reporting a frightening scene on the casino’s closed-circuit video system. The casino employee, according to the response, saw Bayrami accost a woman — referred to in court filings as the “Female Victim” — in the casino parking lot, threaten her with a handgun, and fire shots into the vehicle where she was sitting.
In an interview with The Province earlier this week, former casino employee Tetiana Piltsina identified herself as that female victim, and described the incident recounted in the court filings.
When the first officers responded to the scene, the defendants’ statement says, “Bayrami dragged the Female Victim approximately 300 metres” towards Westminster Highway, where he stood with her until the arrival of the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team (MIERT), which including MacWilliams.
“The confinement of the Female Victim ended when she was rescued by Constable MacWilliams and two other members of the MIERT,” the response alleges, at which point, the situation evolved into a standoff, with Bayrami alternately pointing his handgun in the air or at his own head. The response filed in court on behalf of MacWilliams and Delta describes the standoff as it wore on over the following hours, alleging that:
■ MacWilliams was assigned the role of “lethal overwatch” for his team, responsible for providing cover for officers using less lethal force, and he was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle;
■ After a considerable time, Bayrami began walking towards MacWilliams, holding his gun “with his finger on or near the trigger;”
■ In response, officers deployed “less lethal measures,” including a noise and flash device, and an “AntiRiot” gun firing rubber bullets;
■ Bayrami then moved the gun from “pointing more or less straight up in the air to a position where it was levelled and pointed in the direction of Constable MacWilliams, the two officers deploying the less lethal measures, and other police officers;”
■ MacWilliams, with a “reasonable fear” that Bayrami would shoot and create risk of “death or grievous bodily harm to himself or others,” fired his rifle.
Bayrami was shot in the abdomen, and died 10 days later in Royal Columbian Hospital, the B.C. Coroners Service reported.
At the time of the shooting, Bayrami was arrestable for at least seven criminal offences, the civil response alleges, including unlawful confinement, discharging a firearm with intent, careless use of a firearm, and failing to comply with “earlier imposed bail conditions with respect to his dealings with the Female Victim.”
Cameron Ward, lawyer for Nousha Bayrami, declined to discuss the case Tuesday.
Jeremy Poole, the lawyer representing both MacWilliams and Delta, said: “We are confident that the circumstances we’ve outlined in our response to the civil claim will be borne out by the evidence.”
Poole said he expects there will be some overlap in the evidence heard in both the criminal case and the civil action, and said it’s likely the criminal matter will be resolved before the civil suit has its day in court.