Critical IIO mistake in investigation of 2012 standoff near the Starlight Casino, says former cop
Posted April 7, 2015 8:22 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS1130) – Did the Independent Investigations Office do everything it should have after a deadly hostage-taking and stand-off situation near the Starlight Casino back in 2012?
An officer has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of the suspect, but a former cop says investigators made a critical mistake.
“They hadn’t talked to the person right at the centre of all of this, which is the female that was taken hostage,” says Leo Knight.
Tetiana Piltsina, who was kidnapped and held by 48-year-old Mehrdad Bayrami, claimed in an interview with Knight that the IIO never spoke with her.
Knight says if investigators had, they would have gotten a critical piece of information.
“Bayrami told her that he was going to leave there in a plastic bag; he was not going to go to jail. That says his intent was to die. This was the hill he was going to die on, whether by his own hand, or by police. Well, he didn’t take his own life, so that means that he intended to die by the police hand, which is what happened. The only way that happens is if he points his weapon at police.”
Piltsina apparently claims she went to Delta Police after finding out Constable Jordan MacWilliams was charged with second-degree murder; she later called the IIO as well, but was never interviewed.
Knight tells us she’s outraged MacWilliams has been charged, saying he was doing his job and saved her.
He thinks the IIO model needs an overhaul.
“It needs to be taken apart. The government and its advisors need to rethink what the mandate of the IIO should be, and they should then reconstitute what the civilian agency oversight of police in this province should be.”
Knight adds new IIO hires are trained for 10 weeks at the Justice Institute. “They tag along with entry level recruits for police officer training and they learn a few things, there’s no doubt they learn something. But they don’t learn enough.”
He claims there is no training in the use of force, yet the primary thing they’re supposed to investigate as part of the IIO is use of force by police.
The IIO doesn’t recommend charges; it only determines whether an officer may have committed an offence. It won’t comment on who was interviewed.
