Transit police officer used 'reasonable force' in fatal confrontation: police watchdog

A transit police officer has been cleared of wrongdoing in a fatal confrontation in Surrey, B.C.

The Independent Investigations Office, the civilian agency that investigates serious police-related incidents, issued a report saying the officer used reasonable force when she shot 23-year-old Naverone Woodsin a Safeway storein December 2014.

• NaveroneWoods shot by transit police remembered at vigil
• Surrey police shooting victim caught on surveillance video

The report says two officers arrived at the scene and were confronted by a shirtless man with multiple wounds who had reportedly stabbed himself inside the grocery store.

Police ordered Woods to drop the knives he was waving, but he did not and instead moved towards the officers.

The report says the knives could have caused the officers serious injury or death and the female officer's decision to fire her gun was reasonable given the circumstances.

The officer later told investigators that she believed the young man was high on drugs or in a severe episode of mental illness.

RAW: Surrey shooting victim caught on surveillance

10 years ago

Duration 1:04

Man, 20, was shot by transit police in grocery store after stabbing himself repeatedly