On Nov. 10, 2018, police officers entered the mobile home where Chris Bloomflield, 27, lived with his mother, Marilyn.
Chris was psychotic after days of illicit drug use, Marilyn says. That’s why she asked the RCMP for help to get her son to the hospital.
The RCMP says that, once inside, Bloomfield advanced on the officers with an “edged weapon.” The officers attempted to deploy a taser was “without success,” the RCMP says; then “shots were fired by police.”
Bloomfield died from his injuries.
The Discourse spent months investigating this story, and on May 29 published a longform feature about Bloomfield’s life and death. The article asks what kind of training RCMP officers receive to help them deal with people in mental health crisis, examines criticisms from police watchdogs about the shortcomings of such training, and looks at potential solutions. You can read the full story here.
We aim to be transparent about our reporting and the sources we use. So here is a list of some of the sources our team consulted in reporting this story:
- RCMP notify IIO BC of a police involved shooting in Shawnigan Lake
- TEMPO: Police Interactions — A report towards improving interactions between police and people living with mental health problems
- RCMP Incident Management / Intervention Model
- Police training: ‘You shoot until the threat has stopped,’ use-of-force trainer says
- Why Don’t Police Aim for the Arms or Legs?
- Deadly force: Fatal encounters with police in Canada: 2000-2017
- Crisis Intervention Policy for Police Working with People with Mental illness/Concurrent Disorders
- UK Cops Disarm Man Wielding a Machete
- The Vast Majority of U.K. Police Don’t Carry Guns. Here’s Why.
- CIT International, Inc.
- Police Resources in British Columbia, 2016
- Police in Cowichan respond to a growing mental health crisis [end]
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More from this series:
Who’s struggling in the Cowichan Valley?
I asked you about your daily struggles. Here’s what you said.
Demand for mental health support increasing among Cowichan youth
Police in Cowichan respond to a growing mental health crisis
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