Prince George officer not facing charges after shooting Dawson Creek prolific offender

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A Prince George police officer will not face any charges after he shot a man in the groin last year, according to an Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO BC) report.

A Peace region media report names Ryan Patrick Beaulieu as the individual shot by the police officer, although the RCMP and the IIO BC were unable to confirm.

The incident occurred on July 11th, 2022, in Prince George. That same day, Beaulieu was charged with seven offences, including two counts of assaulting a peace officer with a weapon in Prince George.

He was also charged with two counts of assault with a weapon, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, administering noxious things to endanger a person, and wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

He is currently awaiting trial in Dawson Creek for aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and two counts of breach of a probation order.

Legislation applicable to the IIO BC does not allow them to release information about the affected persons or the officers involved unless the person affected consents to the disclosure or public interest outweighs the privacy interest of the affected person.

According to the IIO BC, those requirements have not been met in this case.

Chief Civilian Director of the IIO BC Ronald J. MacDonald wrote in the report that Prince George RCMP members arrested the male offender after he fled from police investigating him on suspicion of shoplifting.

The man was found to be in possession of a knife and what appeared to be a restricted or prohibited firearm and was transported to the Prince George RCMP detachment.

MacDonald said officers searched the man and his backpack further at the detachment, finding another knife and a can of bear spray.

One of the witness officers told the IIO BC he witnessed the subject officer examine the firearm and determine it was a CO2-powered pellet pistol.

The subject officer is the officer directly involved in the incident that was being investigated.

All four weapons, two knives, the CO2-powered pellet pistol and the bear spray, were placed on a shelf below the counter in the booking area.

MacDonald wrote that the man was provided phone access and called a lawyer. He was also notified that he was subject to an outstanding arrest warrant from Dawson Creek.

Beaulieu was wanted by the Dawson Creek RCMP in May 2022 for uttering threats.

MacDonald said a video recording shows the man standing, unaccompanied and without handcuffs, near the booking counter.

He leans forward on the counter, reaches over it and grabs the bear spray from the shelf, wrote MacDonald.

Immediately, the man began spraying through the window into the area behind the counter, first to his right towards the subject officer and then to his left across the guard room, before he dropped the can and fell to the floor.

MacDonald wrote the primary target of the spray appeared to be the subject officer, who was the closest to the counter.

Video evidence and examination of firearms indicate it was the subject officer who fired his weapon at the man.

Another witness officer told investigators he heard the subject officer shout something along the lines of “stop” at the man before a gunshot was heard.

MacDonald said two civilian employees were also in the guard room area behind the booking counter and were in danger of being affected by the bear spray or injured by other weapons accessible to the man.

When asked by IIO BC investigators, the man acknowledged showing a lack of judgment in grabbing the bear spray and spraying the officers.

“I didn’t give it any thought, it just happened,” he said.

MacDonald explained because this case involved an officer’s use of deadly force, a piece of the puzzle the IIO BC investigated was the potential justifications for lethal force.

“While an assault with bear spray, in itself, would not usually be considered as posing a threat of death or grievous bodily harm, the circumstances of this case were not ‘the usual,’” MacDonald wrote.

When the incident occurred, he said the subject officer had impaired vision and was retreating from an “unexpected and completely irrational attack by a person who had other weapons within easy reach.”

In addition, there were unarmed civilians within the same enclosed area, and there wasn’t much to prevent the man from climbing or jumping over the counter, posing a serious threat to everyone in the room.

“The practice of police placing seized weapons on an unsecured shelf within easy reach of detainees can certainly be criticized as slopping and risky, to say the least,” MacDonald wrote.

“[The subject officer’s] response to [the man’s] assault on him, though, in these circumstances, was within a reasonable and justifiable range.”

The Chief Civilian Director of the IIO BC concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer may have committed an offence.

The full IIO BC report can be viewed below: