Watchdog clears police who shot B.C. double murderer after overnight standoff
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SURREY – British Columbia’s police watchdog has cleared RCMP officers of wrongdoing in the 2024 shooting of a man who murdered two family members then barricaded himself in a trailer in an overnight standoff.
The Independent Investigations Office says in a report released Thursday that the incident took place at the Tsay Keh Dene Nation in central B.C. in April of 2024.
Orlan Dennis later pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, although he’s not named in the report, which says officers arrived to see him running with a rifle towards the trailer, where a person who fled the killings in a different home had locked themselves inside with other relatives.
The report says police did not initially fire on Dennis, fearing they might hit those inside, and Dennis was then able to get into the trailer.
The person who had fled then jumped out of a window, and Dennis barricaded himself for several hours, eventually requiring the use of gas to force him out.
Dennis was shot and seriously injured by police when he exited while carrying the rifle, with investigators finding officers were justified and reasonable in their use of firearms.
“The threat posed to officers when the (man) emerged from the trailer holding the rifle was evident,” the report says. “He was believed to have used the rifle, only a few hours earlier, to kill two family members, and had refused over an extended period to surrender to police.”
The report also notes witness statements that Dennis suggested he did not intend to survive the confrontation, and officers should not have allowed him to get close enough to police to attack.
“Even though he was not directly aiming his rifle at an officer when he was shot, the weapon posed an imminent threat of grievous bodily harm or death to all the attending officers,” the report says.
The Independent Investigations Office says the case will not be referred to prosecutors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2026.