RCMP ask witness to come forward after police-involved shooting in Surrey

A sign for Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, B.C., is seen in this 2020 photo. (Shutterstock)

Surrey Mounties are asking a witness to come forward as they continue to investigate a police-involved shooting that happened outside Guildford Town Centre last month.

In a news release Monday, the RCMP said it's looking to speak to a witness who reported to Surrey Police Service officers that a man had a gun near the mall on March 17. When officers found the man who was allegedly carrying a gun, he fled on foot.

One of the SPS officers "discharged their firearm, striking the suspect man," Surrey RCMP's news release said, adding the man was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Nobody else was hurt.

B.C.'s police oversight agency, the Independent Investigations Office, is looking into the incident. Surrey RCMP is also conducting a "parallel investigation" into the initial report of a man with a gun. The shooting marked the first one involving officers with the SPS and comes as the IIO is seeing higher-than-average numbers of these type of reports. 

"It is also our sixteenth officer-involved shooting for this fiscal year, which will end at the end of this month, which is about twice our average," Ronald MacDonald, the IIO's chief civilian investigator, told CTV News Vancouver last month, saying there were 27 in the previous fiscal year.

"Up to that point in time, our average had been seven."

Surrey Mounties said the witness approached SPS officers near the east entrance of the mall – close to Forever 21 – between 9:45 and 9:50 p.m. on the day of the incident.

Police described the witness as heavy set, middle aged and South Asian. He spoke Punjabi and English, police said, adding he's about 5'8" tall and was clean-shaven that day.

"If you are the witness who reported this incident to police, we want to hear from you," Surrey RCMP's news release said.

Anyone else who has information is asked to call police at 604-599-0502.