Halifax police justified in shooting man who pointed bow and arrow at officers, SIRT says

Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team says two Halifax police officers were acting properly when they fatally shot a man armed with a bow and arrow in Dartmouth earlier this year.

SIRT’s investigation included statements from 11 civilian witnesses as well as civilian video and photos. The reports were released Thursday afternoon.

The incident on May 27 started out just after 9 a.m. when police received a 911 call about a man armed with a bow and arrow at Maybank Park, a municipal park with three ball diamonds on Mic Mac Boulevard, about one kilometre from Mic Mac Mall.

At the time, there were people about to arrive for a softball game, people playing soccer at the fields across the street, and an event happening at an elementary school next to the soccer fields.

Two people at the ball fields were approached by the man, whose demeanour was concerning to them. He had the bow and two arrows with him, and they called 911 because of the pending arrival of children.

When the first police officer arrived, the man fully drew the bow with an arrow in it and pointed it at the officer, who called for backup. One of the people who called police recalled that as more officers arrived and repeated demands for the man to drop the bow and surrender, he didn’t respond and had a smile on his face.

When members of the emergency response team arrived, they discussed non-lethal options to take the man into custody if they had the opportunity, but he had taken cover behind a car so the two members with those weapons would not be able to use them at that point.

After more than 10 minutes of the encounter, the man stood up from behind the car and pointed his bow directly at the officers in the parking lot, and the order was given to fire. Two snipers in the tree line each fired a round, striking the man in the upper body. He was taken to hospital but later died.

Police later learned that the man, who was homeless and living in a tent nearby and had struggled with mental illness — had spoken with someone else the day before, while also carrying the bow. He said to that person something to the effect that the witness shouldn’t go a certain way or the man would “pluck you with those” and pointed to the arrows. The arrows were found to be metal-tipped, and the bow was a recurve

SIRT interim director Erin Nauss said in the reported that she was satisfied that both officers who shot the man “acted to deter a reasonably apprehended threat of the discharge of the loaded bow and arrow at officers,” and the evidence supports the perception of the officers that there were reasonable grounds to believe the threat to the lives of the other officers was imminent.

She also wrote that she was convinced police used reasonable force, as the bow and arrow was fully drawn and was “capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm or death. It was pointed directly at officers. At the moment in question, immediate action was required to stop the (man).”