Man shot by cop was armed with knife, say Langley RCMP
The man shot by police last year was armed with a knife and hatchet, the RCMP say.
Alvin Wright, who was fatally shot by a Langley RCMP officer investigating an alleged domestic dispute, poses with his partner Heather Hannon.
Photograph by: Submitted , PNG files
Langley RCMP say Alvin Wright was brandishing a knife when he was shot last year by an 18-year veteran officer.
Wright, whose family are suing the RCMP over his death, was at his home on 203rd Street when three officers responded to a domestic disturbance call in August last year.
"Our officers attended to a domestic situation and found Mr. Wright hiding in a bedroom closet armed with a large knife and a hatchet," said Supt. Derek Cooke, head of the Langley RCMP detachment. "He was only shot as a last resort after he came at them brandishing the knife."
None of the officers involved was removed from active duty after the event, Cooke said.
On Wednesday, the Vancouver Police Department said the Langley Mountie who fired the shot had acted correctly, and that no charges were warranted. Outside police forces investigate police shootings in B.C.
Until Thursday, no information about the incident had been released, except to say that Wright "confronted" officers. It was never revealed if he was armed in the more than a year since his death.
A full coroner's inquest will be held next March into the fatal police shooting.
