B.C.’s civilian police watchdog has been tasked with probing a police shooting that left a woman dead in Surrey early Thursday morning.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) says officers were called around 4:40 a.m. to a disturbance at a home on 180A Street near 62 Avenue.
“Officers attended and found a woman barricaded in a room who was reportedly holding a weapon next to a young child,” the RCMP said in a media release.
The IIO described the child as a “toddler.”
Arriving officers safely removed two other adults from the home, police said.
Around 5:30 a.m., “while interacting with the woman” an officer shot her, according to the RCMP account of the incident.
She died at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics.
The child did not suffer any reported physical injuries.
The IIO, which is tasked with probing all police interactions that result in serious injury or death, regardless of allegations of wrongdoing, will now review the shooting.