RCMP shot and killed a man Saturday in northwestern B.C. while attempting to arrest him on five outstanding criminal warrants.

Police received information that the man was living in a remote area 70 kilometres northwest of Hazelton and that he might be armed with a rifle, RCMP said.

At about 10:00 a.m. members of the Hazelton RCMP, the Police Dog Service and the North District Emergency Response Team located the suspect and another man, and both were armed, police said.

During the arrest, the suspect was shot. He was pronounced dead on arrival to hospital. The second man was taken into custody.

None of the officers was hurt.

The Delta Police Department is leading the investigation. A member of the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP will also be involved.

The shooting comes on the same week that the RCMP and B.C. police chiefs announced that they support the establishment of an independent unit to investigate police-involved deaths.

The mother of a B.C. man who was shot in the head by an RCMP officer says it's about time.

Linda Bush has been pushing for such a unit since her 22-year-old son Ian Bush was killed in a scuffle with a young constable at the RCMP's Houston, B.C., detachment in October 2005.

A coroner's inquest later cleared the officer of any wrongdoing, but Bush has long argued that police shouldn't investigate themselves.

"In Houston, right from the very first moments the person who killed Ian was treated as the victim by the RCMP that were around him," Bush said.

"We've just been solid in saying we want it to be a civilian unit," she said.

Last week, RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon, president of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said public confidence in police is so low that such an agency is needed "as soon as possible."

Critics say the RCMP's image has been seriously damaged since would-be Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after being stunned by an RCMP Taser at Vancouver's airport in October 2007.

Bush said she wants a civilian-led organization to take over investigations when police are involved to avoid the inherent bias when police probe incidents involving other officers.

"I just don't think it's possible for them not to be biased," she said. "But people who don't know (the officer involved), people who don't work with them would have a whole different perspective on things."

With files from The Canadian Press