Woman Shot by Surrey RCMP on May 24, 2022

Surrey RCMP shot a woman near the intersection of King George Boulevard and 104A Avenue on May 24, 2022. The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is investigating. They report that RCMP were called to the 10500-block of King George Boulevard “for a report of a woman with a weapon.” Officers identified a woman in the 10400-block of King George Boulevard and shot her. The woman was taken to hospital “with what are believed to be serious injuries.”

RCMP killed three people in Surrey in April, shooting two of them.

Sex Worker Assaulted in Whalley

A sex worker was assaulted in the early morning of May 5 in Whalley. There were reports of a woman screaming and a fire alarm ringing in the 13500 block of Old Yale Road at 2:24 AM, and a woman who had been physically beaten by a man was later located in the staircase of an underground parking lot. 

Person Found Dead After Fire at Homeless Encampment in Surrey

A person was found dead after a fire at an encampment of unhoused people in Surrey on the morning of April 25, 2022. Surrey Fire Service report that fire occurred on 120 Street (Scott Road) near 88 Avenue. The BC Coroners Service and fire crews are undertaking an investigation.

The person has not been identified and no report had been made on the cause of death. It has not been reported if anyone else was injured or how the fire was started.

Unhoused people have long been targeted by police and bylaw enforcement officers in Surrey. This includes the closing of the longstanding encampment on the Strip (135A Street) in the Whalley neighborhood which displaced and dispersed people. Many residents of the Strip warned at the time that this would make people more vulnerable.  

RCMP Shoot and Kill a Man on April 1, 2022

Surrey RCMP shot and killed a man in the morning of April 1, 2022. Reports on the killing by police are sketchy and rather conflictual. 

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) reports that RCMP received several calls about a man alleged to be involved in various incidents, including a carjacking. They reportedly spotted someone near the intersection of 142A Street and 87A Avenue who, for some reason, they believed to be the person involved in an earlier incident. Around 7 AM, RCMP claim officers took part in a foot pursuit of a man they believed matched the description of the person seen near 142A Street and 87A Avenue.

At some point there was unspecified “altercation,” and police shot the man. He was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead. None of the police claims have been confirmed. There have been reports of a carjacking but no confirmation that there was a carjacking or that the person killed was involved in one.

RCMP in Surrey have history of presenting false statements immediately after they kill someone. When they killed Nona McEwan and Randy Crosson in 2019, they made statements suggesting Crosson killed McEwan, when they knew both victims had been shot and only RCMP had guns at the scene. When they killed Hudson Brooks in 2015, they suggested there had been a shootout, when they knew that only police had weapons and an RCMP officer had shot themself in panic.

There have been at least four police-involved deaths in Surrey in less than a year.

RCMP Let Off After Brutalizing Alex Fisher in Mistaken Identity Case

Alex Fisher (27) was badly injured when Surrey RCMP pulled him from his bike, slamming his face on the ground, on February 8, 2021, in a case of mistaken identity. On December 1, the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) announced that they would not be referring charges to Crown.

Fisher said he was riding his bike in the Guildford area, when an officer “pulled over beside him in his vehicle with his police lights on.” The officer then got out of his vehicle and “yelled something” at Fisher who slowed down “but continued biking away from the officer.”

The victim told the IIO that he was then “hit several times" before being placed in handcuffs, when another officer arrived during the arrest. Shortly afterwards the officers received a photo of the suspect and “discovered (the man) was not who police were looking for.”

Fisher reportedly said he was "not sure if his injuries occurred when the officer hit him, or whether he was struck by a pole when being removed from his bike.” He also added that could not remember all of the “details of the use of force clearly because he believed that he had blacked out for a second.”

The IIO seems to have used this against Fisher.  IIO director Ronald MacDonald reported that it is “quite possible” that the man’s face was injured in the “tumble” from his bike, as if the "tumble" was not the result of police violence. MacDonald added that there is “no evidence” the injury was a “result of the unlawful application of force during the arrest, but that is more an effect of the law allowing police to do whatever they want to do. Surely pulling someone from their bike as a result of mistaken identity would not be considered lawful in other contexts. It is straightforwardly assault.

MacDonald adds insult to injury, claiming that Fisher was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is a purely copaganda excuse. He was not in the wrong place at all.

According to MacDonald: “It is extremely unfortunate that (he) ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in him being injured in this incident. However, the officers’ actions were reasonable considering the information that was known to them, and the danger that an armed suspect posed.” 

MacDonald even said the cop was was “left with no option.”

Fisher had every right to be on his bike there. That is not what resulted in his being injured. His injuries were the direct result of a police decision to inflict violence.

Most of the "evidence the IIO relied on came from police: statements from three witness police officers, CCTV footage, 911 recordings, police radio-to-radio transmissions, and medical records.

The RCMP officer who brutalized Fisher did not cooperate with the IIO.

TMX Starts Cutting Trees in Fraser Heights for Trans Mountain Pipeline

This week TMX started cutting multiple trees in the Fraser Heights area of Surrey (unceded Kwantlen, Katzie territory), to make way for its Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby. The pipeline is being routed alongside the South Fraser Perimeter Road in Fraser Heights, before crossing under the Fraser River north to Coquitlam. The path is east of the Port Mann Bridge. The Surrey section of the pipeline will be 11.5 kilometers in length.

Former pipeline owner Kinder Morgan decided on the Fraser Heights route in 2013 to avoid neighborhoods in North Surrey, where the existing pipeline runs, over concerns of organized opposition. In a press statement at the time the company said:

“While the route choice allows Trans Mountain pipeline planners to dodge possible conflict with hundreds of homeowners who live near the current line, it’s likely to mean sharper focus on the environmental risk of a rupture that could send heavy crude oil into the river.”

The new route is closer to the Fraser River and increases the likelihood of harms to the river, and more substantial harms, in the event of a rupture.

Environmentalists have said that the TMX development will cut hundreds of trees from the forest and protected parkland in Fraser Heights. This includes a circle of seven old cedars and numerous other mature trees. The company started by cutting around 50 trees without notice on November 5. Direct action by Hummingbird Land Defenders stopped cutting that day.

Woman Hospitalized in Serious Condition While in Surrey RCMP Custody (Nov. 7, 2021)

A woman was taken to hospital in serious condition while in Surrey RCMP custody. The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is investigating. They report that the woman was arrested on November 5 at 10:44 PM for an outstanding warrant and taken to the Surrey RCMP detachment, “after being cleared by medical personnel at the hospital for incarceration.” From there she “was processed, lodged in cells and subsequently remanded.”

On November 7, shortly before 1:30 AM, a guard allegedly noticed the woman had fallen from her bunk to the floor and was “unresponsive and not breathing.” She was then taken to hospital.

No other details have been provided by the IIO or Surrey RCMP.