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Mass Casualty IncidentsVersion 7

Two dead in April 2024 Tsay Keh Dene shooting; police watchdog clears RCMP officer

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. released a report on Thursday, Aug. 6, finding no grounds to refer any officer for charges after an overnight stand-off in northern British Columbia.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 8, 2026, 8:57 p.m. ET
people were found dead at the residence where a shooting occurred on the traditional lands of , , on the evening of April 9, 2024, according to a second RCMP witness officer whose account is recounted in the report of the Independent Investigations Office of (IIO), as reported by the Mission Record, the Vernon Morning Star, the North Island Gazette, The Progress, the Caledonia Courier, the Salmon Arm Observer, the Maple Ridge News, the Comox Valley Record, the Quesnel Observer, the Ladysmith Chronicle, the Grand Forks Gazette and the Cloverdale Reporter. Officials have not released the identities of those who died. The place is named by The Progress, the North Island Gazette, the Caledonia Courier, the Mission Record, the Salmon Arm Observer, the Comox Valley Record, the Quesnel Observer, the Grand Forks Gazette, the Interior News, the Cranbrook Townsman and the Ladysmith Chronicle, and by the Cloverdale Reporter, the Vernon Morning Star and the Maple Ridge News; most outlets describe the location at the level of a , while the Cloverdale Reporter describes it as a . According to the IIO report, RCMP received a 911 call that evening reporting that an Indigenous man had shot family members; the call was relayed through police dispatch at 10:06 p.m., and RCMP officers were first to respond. Accounts of the setting differ: the Maple Ridge News, the Caledonia Courier, the Mission Record, the Salmon Arm Observer, the Ladysmith Chronicle, the Grand Forks Gazette, the Interior News, the Cranbrook Townsman, the Omineca Express and the Quesnel Observer report that civilian witnesses sheltered in a trailer near or across the street from the residence with the lights off and the doors locked, while the Vernon Morning Star reports the civilian who called 911 fled to a relative's home and other witnesses sheltered in a trailer. The report describes an extended attempt to negotiate. About an hour after the 911 call, the man came to the trailer carrying a rifle, banging and kicking at the door and demanding to be let in, according to a second civilian witness who spoke to IIO investigators. A fifth witness officer was attached to the response as part of the RCMP Crisis Negotiation Team at 10:41 p.m. and became primary negotiator; third and fourth officers arrived approximately 50 minutes after the first officers, travelling from the Kwadacha Nation, which the report places approximately 75 kilometres from the incident. That officer spoke briefly with the man through the trailer's landline shortly after midnight and again at 12:21 a.m.; the report says he admitted to the shootings and sounded intoxicated and paranoid. Shortly after 1 a.m., a fifth civilian witness broke through police containment and entered the trailer, yelling at the man; she left about half an hour later, unarmed, and was arrested. At 3:41 a.m. the officer connected again by phone and directed the man to come out with empty hands; he refused. At about 5 a.m. a recorded message from the second civilian witness asking him to surrender peacefully was played to him over the phone. Between 5 and 5:30 a.m., RCMP Emergency Response Team members were arriving on scene and preparing equipment. IIO chief civilian director Jessica Berglund said in the report that "police made ongoing efforts to de-escalate and bring the incident to a peaceful conclusion," adding that the man "did not cooperate and permit himself to be taken into custody without violence." She said he "was believed to have used the rifle, only a few hours earlier, to kill family members, and had refused over an extended period to surrender to police," and that "he had also made statements suggesting he had no intention to survive the stand-off. It would not have been reasonable to permit the (man) to decrease the distance between himself and the officers to increase the chance of the (conducted energy weapon) being effective." She described "the application of non-lethal gas into the trailer" as "an appropriate step, given the continued refusal and the fact that it was becoming light out, making the police more visible to the (man) exposing them to the risk that he might fire his rifle at them from a window." Berglund concluded: "I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment, and the matter will not be referred to the BCPS (BC Prosecution Service) for consideration of charges." The man was taken into custody. The IIO released its report clearing the RCMP officer on Thursday, Aug. 6. The Maple Ridge News, North Island Gazette, The Progress, the Caledonia Courier, the Mission Record, the Comox Valley Record, the Ladysmith Chronicle, the Grand Forks Gazette, the Interior News, the Cranbrook Townsman, the Omineca Express and the Quesnel Observer report the incident is no longer active. The agencies involved were the RCMP, its Emergency Response Team and Crisis Negotiation Team, and the IIO.

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Revision history

  1. Version 79 Aug 2026, 00:57current

    Added headline and dek, and included the Omineca Express among outlets reporting the trailer setting and that the incident is no longer active.

  2. Version 69 Aug 2026, 00:48

    Added a headline and standfirst, and folded the Interior News and Cranbrook Townsman into the attribution lists for the place-name spelling, the setting and the incident's inactive status.

  3. Version 59 Aug 2026, 00:39

    Added the Grand Forks Gazette to the attribution lists for the death toll, the place-name variants, the sheltering-witness account and the no-longer-active status; headline and dek reworked to lead with the finding and the date.

  4. Version 49 Aug 2026, 00:34

    Added Ladysmith Chronicle to the attribution lists for the death toll, place-name variant, setting and incident status, and moved the report's Aug. 6 release date into the closing paragraph.

  5. Version 39 Aug 2026, 00:28

    Added headline and standfirst, restructured to lead with the two people killed, and updated attributions to include the Comox Valley Record and Quesnel Observer.

  6. Version 29 Aug 2026, 00:26

    Added the Aug. 6 report release date, six additional sourcing outlets and their spelling/granularity split, the arrival of third and fourth officers from Kwadacha Nation, the witness account of the man at the trailer door, further Berglund quotes, and removed the 'developing story' caveat.

  7. Version 18 Aug 2026, 06:51

    First published.

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