Crown prosecutors have stayed the second-degree murder charge against Jordan MacWilliams, the Delta police officer who shot a suspect during a standoff outside the Starlight Casino three years ago.
B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch said the decision to drop the murder charge, which was laid last year following a lengthy investigation by police watchdog the Independent Investigations Office, came after a “careful review of the case.”
“The available evidence, considered in its entirety, no longer supports a viable prosecution,” the CJB said in a statement explaining the reversal.
MacWilliams was among dozens of officers, including Emergency Response Team members, who responded to reports of shots fired in the parking lot of the New Westminster casino on Nov. 8, 2012.
They identified 48-year-old Mehrdad Bayrami as the alleged gunman and a tense five-hour standoff ensued. The suspect, though armed, remained seated for most of it.
According to the IIO’s findings, toward the end of the confrontation Bayrami stood up and started walking toward MacWilliams with his gun pointed skyward.
After officers fired plastic bullets and a flash-bang at him, he slowly lowered the gun until it was aimed at the ground and started walking backwards away from police.
Footage from the incident reveals this is when MacWilliams pulled the trigger, the CJB said.
The IIO investigated the case and sent their reports to Crown, who approved a count of second-degree murder in October 2014. According to the CJB, the clear video evidence of Bayrami’s actions in the moments leading up to his shooting contributed to prosecutors’ decision to pursue the case.
But after speaking with 35 witnesses and receiving additional information from both police and the IIO, the Crown chose to stay the charge.
Key to the case would have been the question of whether MacWilliams could have reasonably believed shooting Bayrami was necessary to protect himself and his fellow officers, even though the suspect was retreating with his weapon pointing downward.
According to the CJB, police felt after hours of Bayrami’s inactivity, the mere fact he was up and moving represented a concerning “change in his demeanor.”
“From the police perspective… it was the opposite of de-escalation and it significantly elevated the risk to all,” the branch said in its statement.
Some of the officers at the scene also told investigators they believed Bayrami was still walking toward them, not backwards, and that they saw the muzzle of his gun pointing at them as he moved. Still images from the video footage “provide support” for the latter impression, the CJB said.
Other officers told investigators they already had moved their fingers onto the triggers of their own firearms by the time Bayrami was shot, and that they easily could have been the one to fire.
The branch also suggested MacWilliams’s thought process could be a fact in shooting Bayrami after he’d already lowered his arm and aimed at the ground.
“It takes time for a human being to perceive, process, and react to a violent threat,” it said.
The Delta Police Department issued a statement Tuesday shortly after the stay was announced celebrating the decision.
Chief Const. Neil Dubord said an indictment could have impacted officers’ ability to make instantaneous life-or-death decisions.
“We feel an overwhelming sense of relief for Jordan MacWilliam, his family, the men and women of the Delta Police Department, and indeed all police officers across Canada,” Dubord said.
MacWilliams has been on paid administrative leave from the force for the past two-and-a-half years.
A Police Act investigation into the incident is still ongoing, and the IIO said it expects the BC Coroners Service to announce an inquest.
