‘Like a 90 mph fastball,’ VPD reveal impact of beanbag shotgun

The Vancouver Police Department is sharing more about the force used to subdue a woman at BC Women’s Hospital Thursday morning.

A woman allegedly threatened staff with a knife and tried to get into a locked nursery just after 10:30 a.m.

According to social media reports, the woman was in the Families in Recovery (FIR) Square unit, a specialized unit within the maternity wing that provides care to women and birthing parents using substances, and infants exposed to these substances. It is the first of its kind in Canada.

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Sgt John Roberts with the Force Options Training Unit said in a news conference Friday that the beanbag has a similar feeling to an officer hitting someone as hard “as they can with their baton.”

“But the luxury of the beanbag shotgun is you can do it from distance,” he said.

Sergeant John Roberts, VPD (CityNews Image)

Police say an officer was forced to use a beanbag shotgun to subdue the woman before she was arrested.

Police did not confirm what kind of weapon the suspect was in possession of when arrested, although it was reported to be a knife initially, when police arrived the woman was in possession of a different weapon.

“The target area for the shotgun is the meaty parts of the body, like the pelvic region, the thighs, the buttocks and stuff like that, where significant injury is fairly low risk,” he explained.

Vancouver police say the woman was treated for minor injuries, however, the actions of the force have come under criticism from some advocates as the woman was possibly reacting to her child being taken away by the Ministry of Child and Family Development.

“An easy way to explain it is — if there’s any sports fans here –it would be like being hit by like a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. So generally speaking the result is bruising,” Roberts said.

Battered Women’s Support Services Angela Marie McDougall told CityNews the use of the shotgun was “horrific” on Thursday.

“There are so many ways to de-escalate someone that’s in distress. But the first thing we do, is we recognize the reason for the distress, and we provide empathy,” she explained. “And we understand the context of the distress, and we respond to the reasons for the distress. The last thing we need is a big hammer coming down on women in what amounts to the maternity ward.”

Vancouver police are currently being investigated by the province’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office of BC, as an Indigenous man died in police custody on the Downtown Eastside on Aug. 22. after being shot with a beanbag shotgun.

Chris Amyotte went into “medical distress and lost consciousness,” according to police. Witnesses say Amyotte had been bear sprayed and ran to a nearby convenience store on East Hastings Street near Gore Avenue to get a carton of milk before being shot with the shotgun.