'We left seconds before': Witnesses recount fatal police incident in Campbell River, B.C.

Two Campbell River, B.C., residents were on a walk on Saturday when they heard shots being fired in the direction of their apartment.

"They were really loud. We were just on (the south side) of the bridge when they went off," Glendale told CTV News on Monday.

When they returned to their apartment, they found police vehicles all through the area as they began their investigation into the shooting of a man by RCMP.

The pair then reviewed their surveillance camera footage and saw it had captured a robbery suspect running onto the grounds of the complex, then later pointing what appeared to be a gun at a police officer as he ran towards him.

"We left seconds before it all went down," said Simms. "We looked at our camera and that’s when we saw most of it."

Simms believes the suspect ran into the unit where he had previously visited and ran into difficulties as he was being followed by police.

"From what we are assuming, he tried to escape through the back stairwell and couldn’t, so he ran, tried to look back and forth, and ended up running into that cop," she said.

The video shows the officer drawing his weapon and backing away from the suspect as the suspect runs past the officer. A shot is heard followed by two more that are fired after the pair are no longer visible on the footage.

The video is now in the hands of the Independent Investigation Office of B.C. (IIO) who are conducting an investigation on the shooting. The Chief Civilian Director for the organization says the incident began when police were called to the report of a theft at a nearby sporting goods store by a man with a weapon.