
Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
CTV
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
The B.C. Prosecution Service said in a statement Tuesday that the evidence was insufficient to pursue charges against any of the officers involved in the death of Jared Lowndes.
"The BCPS is not able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officers committed any offence in relation to the incident," the statement from the prosecutors' office said.
Representatives from the office met with the Lowndes's mother, Laura Holland, earlier in the day to relay their findings. Holland said her fight to hold police accountable for her son's death, as well as other Indigenous people’s deaths, will not stop.
"We need to have an inquiry into why police are killing so many Indigenous people,” she told reporters outside the Vancouver provincial courthouse.
“This is not over, I'm not going to stop. I will continue to fight for justice for Jared,” she said. “I will continue to fight for justice for all Indigenous people who have been killed."
Two officers opened fire on Lowndes, killing him in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons in Campbell River on the morning of July 8, 2021.