Prosecutors have stayed charges against a man accused of trying to steal a Vancouver police officer’s gun in the Downtown Eastside more than two years ago.
Surveillance footage from April 7, 2022 showed a suspect allegedly attempting to yank a VPD constable’s gun out of his holster, as the constable and another officer cleaned up on Main Street near Hastings after a sudden death call.
The random attack stunned even veteran police officers.
“To be ambushed and jumped from behind like that, that’s a huge concern,” Deputy VPD Chief Const. Howard Chow told Global News at the time.
Elijah Otwey, then 22, was arrested and charged with disarming a police officer and assaulting a police officer.
The BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) has now confirmed both charges against Otwey were stayed on June 10, after further information was received by the prosecutor handling the file.
“After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials, the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met,” the BCPS said in an email.
Under BCPS charge assessment guidelines, charges will only be approved if Crown counsel is satisfied that “the evidence gathered by the investigative agency provides a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest.”
Vancouver police said the decision not to proceed with the charges is disappointing, given officers continue to be subjected to attacks on the job.
“About three officers a day in the Lower Mainland are being assaulted, whether that’s being punched at, spat on, kicked, stabbed, sometimes shot at,” Const. Tania Visintin told Global News in an interview on Wednesday.
“This decision is sending a message to people in the public, criminals, our officers that this is normalized behaviour … this is absolutely not okay that this happens, this is not part of our job and it’s not something that should be normalized.”
The Vancouver Police Union said it doesn’t know why the charges were stayed but understands Crown counsel has a very difficult job.
“They apply the law as they need to within a system that’s broken,” union president Ralph Kaisers told Global News. “There’s been some reference that it was not in the public interest to pursue.”
The BCPS said it could not provide further information – including revealing exactly what the new information was that led to the charges being dropped.
Global News contacted the Ministry of the Attorney General to see if it could allow the BCPS to provide more clarity about what happened in this case.
The ministry responded with a statement saying the BCPS operates independently of government and within the justice system.
“While the attorney general is responsible for overseeing the administration of justice, they do not become involved in prosecution decisions relating to individual cases,” said the Ministry of the Attorney General in an email.
“We need answers and or a better explanation as to why they did enter a stay of proceedings,” said Kaisers. “They may have good reason for it but tell us why please.”
Fortunately, in this case, police said the suspect, who has no criminal record in B.C., was unsuccessful at stealing the officer’s firearm.
“Thankfully the accused was not able to get that gun,” said Kaisers.
“What a horrific incident that would have been had the accused actually gotten ahold of the member’s gun.”