Charges Stayed against Elizabeth Cucheran, Cop Who Killed Hudson Brooks

RCMP Constable Elizabeth Cucheran shot and killed 20-year-old Hudson Brooks on July 18, 2015 outside the South Surrey RCMP detachment. Cucheran shot the young Brooks nine times, of a total of 12 shots she fired at him. Brooks was in obvious distress at the time, was shirtless and shoeless. He needed support and acre, but that is not what police provide. They are agents of state violence and brutality.

On September 18, 2019, the prosecution service of British Columbia did what prosecutors typically do in cases of police killing members of our communities. They let the killer cop off and stayed the charges against Cucheran. Charges that only included aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, no murder or even manslaughter. For shooting someone nine times. Cucheran was so out of control that she even shot herself, a fact that RCMP initially tried to imply was a result of a shootout with the victim.

The Brooks family and friends are obviously, and rightly, hurt by this decision, an additional act of state violence against them. This decision is an outrage and an offense to our communities. And a killer cop is free to terrorize our communities further.