Man dies after confrontation with officers in Langley

LANGLEY (NEWS 1130) – A man in his late 20s is dead after police say he was involved in a confrontation with officers in Langley on Wednesday.

Mounties say an abandoned 911 call came in just after 3:00 a.m.

Scene of early morning incident in Langley at 72nd & 208th. Police tape just pulled down but detectives still wandering the side of the street. Neighbor tells me something happened at 3am, there was an apparent tarp on the ground. Seems like a short investigation for a homicide pic.twitter.com/dfjQz6sP5Z

— Mike Lloyd ☕️ (@llikemoyd) October 23, 2019

Dispatch tried to contact the number that phoned in, but were unable to reach anyone, so officers were sent to the area of 72nd Street and 208th Avenue, from which the call came in.

“When officers arrived they located one man outside who was believed to under the influence of drug and police called EHS for assistance,” the BC RCMP says in a release. “While attempting to take the man into custody a physical altercation ensued.”

Happening Now: Police investigation has 72nd blocked between 208 and 210!in Langley. @CityNewsVAN @NEWS1130Traffic @NEWS1130 pic.twitter.com/IjBRgTMeEb

— Danger On Air (@DangerOnAir) October 23, 2019

Police say the man looked like he was losing consciousness after he was arrested, and that officers asked paramedics to attend before they started to administer CPR.

Fire crews and paramedics continued to try and help the man, but he didn’t make it.

Update: @LangleyRCMP has advised us to contact the @iiobc — the police watchdog that looks into incidents in which someone gets hurt (or killed) in an interaction with police.

— Dean Recksiedler (@RecksiedlerDean) October 23, 2019

IIO involved

The Independent Investigations Office is now looking into what happened. The civilian-led police watchdog is responsible for investigating incidents where a person is either hurt or killed in an interaction with police.

“That’s all part of our investigation to confirm all those facts, and to determine exactly what occurred here, and what role, if any police action had in this matter,” Ron MacDonald says.

“In other words, whether this death was the result of any form of application of force, or was it a prior medical condition, or result of substances the male was using.”

He says this is exactly the reason the IIO exists, to look into situations like this.

“These are the types of circumstances that may well have a very good explanation that the death was caused not by the police, however, that’s why we’re here, to independently look at and determine exactly what happened,” he says. “Whether the use of force had any role at all: if it did, whether that use of force was nonetheless justified, or was this a matter that was unfortunately, perhaps, inevitable, given the medical condition of the individual they were attempting to deal with.”

-With files from Dean Recksiedler and Martin MacMahon