VPD officers cleared of wrongdoing in 2016 shooting death: report

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver police officers’ decision to shoot a robbery suspect at Canadian Tire in East Vancouver two years ago was necessary, according to a ruling from the province’s police watchdog.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. found that 38-year-old Vancouver man Daniel Rintoul posed a deadly threat to the public, and stopping him with deadly force was reasonable. Rintoul was shot nine times by police and died from his wounds.

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New vivid details are being released by the province’s police watchdog following the deadly shooting Nov. 10, 2016, at the store on Bentall Street at Grandview Highway. The report, nine pages in length, describes the moments leading up to Rintoul’s death at the hands of police.

The report included some of the radio transmissions to responding officers: “…there’s a guy inside stealing guns and spraying people with mace,” read the transcript. “Apparently now he’s got a knife and he’s hurt somebody behind the gun desk.”

RELATED: Robbery suspect shot and killed in Vancouver

A store employee was stabbed, and when police tried to arrest Rintoul, he stabbed the officer, according to the report. Rintoul was then shot by police and died at the scene.

A witness at the store at the time of the shooting told the IIO that Rintoul went toward the hunting desk and told the clerk to give him some guns. The clerk asked him which guns he would like, and then suddenly sprayed him with bear mace. The clerk ran at him with the rifle he was working on, and was sprayed again. Rintoul then cut the witness on the face and on the head.

Video surveillance shows Rintoul breaking open a glass gun case and trying to load a long gun.

Another witness who trying to get away was confronted by Rintoul: “the next thing, he had his arm around me and he showed me his knife [and] said…’just do what I say, and you won’t get hurt.’ ”

Rintoul lead that witness toward the exit before bolting out the door. The witness says he saw Rintoul suddenly face-down on the ground outside: “three guys … were trying to hold him down …and the next thing I hear a pop, pop, pop, pop … and … (another witness) said, ‘get back inside, get back inside.’ So I went inside and that’s about all I saw.”

CCTV footage showed Rintoul letting go of the witness before he walked out the back door, and he was holding a long gun in one hand and bear mace in the other.

Other witnesses told the IIO that Rintoul left the building and sprayed police with mace, one saying: “like he almost came out spraying.” After Rintoul hit the ground, the witness says it looked like he was “trying to get to that rifle.”

Police delay investigation

IIO brought the VPD chief and officers to court in March of 2017, saying they had violated their duty to co-operate with the investigation into the shooting.

According to the petition at the time, seven officers refused to speak to investigators without first reviewing the videos of the shooting. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled in favour of the IIO, compelling the seven witnesses to give testimony.

A lawyer who represented one of the constables wrote to the IIO saying his client was concerned about not being allowed to refresh his memory.