RCMP cleared in 2022 Kamloops deadly shooting after violent abduction

The BC Prosecution Service won't be charging an RCMP officer who shot and killed a suspect during a domestic hostage taking incident near Kamloops in 2022.

The fatal gunshots came from an RCMP emergency response team officer who had hidden outside an office trailer in which the suspect's wife and young child were being held against their will.

Matthew Gustafson, identified by iNFOnews.ca following the incident, was supposed to pass off his two children to his ex-partner Aug. 14, 2022. Instead, he assaulted her and took both her and one of the kids hostage.

She tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to escape, and an hours-long ordeal that began in Kamloops ended with Gustafson shot and killed on a rural property west of the city.

BC's police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, found police tactics necessary and reasonable as they sought to avoid harm to the man's hostages.

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Police at the time said the initial 911 call came from the woman pleading for help from inside a vehicle around 5:20 p.m. that day. Shortly after, dispatchers got a call from a witness who saw the mom trying to escape the vehicle while it was being driven erratically on Highway 1. Around 5:45 p.m., a third call came from a family member who identified her.

Gustafson fired a handgun through the window of the vehicle and aggressively prevented her from escaping the car as he drove them toward a rural construction site where he had been working near Walachin, according to a decision from the chief civilian director of the independent investigations office published Thursday, Sept. 26.

He broke into the office trailer at the site, 14 kilometres up Deadman-Vidette Road, confining his hostages inside.

"(He) spent the night consuming drugs, talking about killing himself and making goodbye videos for his children," the decision said.

The officer who fired the lethal shot was hiding for hours as police watched over the trailer. They had arrived around 9 p.m. It was around dawn when he decided to leave the trailer, carrying the child in one hand and a pistol in the other, the mom told investigators.

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"She said that a bright light then came on and she saw police officers coming from cover, shouting at (Gustafson) to get on the ground," the decision read.

The decision made a point not to go into police tactics so as not to threaten future operations, but it's clear the tactic in this case was to surveil the trailer covertly and they took action when Gustafson exited on his own accord.

The officer who fired the shot said Gustafson was approaching police while carrying the child, with the mother behind. He suspected Gustafson might eventually kill one or both of the captives and, as they got closer, another officer fired a 40 mm "less-lethal" round, according to a statement the unidentified officer gave civilian investigators.

He stepped back, but didn't surrender or let go of the child when told he was under arrest. The officer who would fire the killing shot said Gustafson reached for his waist with his other hand. Knowing he had a handgun, the officer suspected Gustafson might shoot someone.

"Based on the totality of the circumstances, I believed that my only option to prevent this was to use lethal force," the decision read. "I aimed my firearm at the suspect's leg on the opposit side of the child, where I had the largest available target area without risking striking the child, and fired on round."

Gustafson dropped in the tall grass, still carrying the child. The officer approached him and heard the mother scream, "He's got my kid."

Getting closer, Gustafson was seen raising his pistol.

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"The child was in his lap, and I feared that the suspect would shoot and kill the child, one of the officers who were fast approaching, or myself," the officer's statement read. "I quickly aimed at the upper body and shot the suspect again."

Gustafson fell back, now bleeding from a gunshot to the neck. The handgun was cocked and the safety was off, the officer noticed, as they approached to take it away.

Another officer took the child and the mother to a waiting ambulance at the scene.

The officer who fired the shot also happened to be a trained tactical police medic and tried to treat Gustafson as paramedics came to help. They weren't successful.

The officer, reflecting on the decision to shoot Gustafson fatally with a rife, said Gustafson didn't appear to be slowed by non-lethal methods, particularly the 40 mm round fired by another police officer.

"It is my belief that further attempts at less lethal intervention would have cost the lives of the hostages or police," the statement read.

The officer was not required to provide a statement to watchdog investigators, and often police do not.

No one, including one found to have killed Gustafson, was named in the report.

The chief civilian director, Jessica Berglund, concluded that the emergency response team's involvement was appropriate during the "critical and dangerous situation," as was their use of force.

"There was a grave risk that, in desperation, he would harm his hostages or anyone who might get in his way," Berglund said in the decision. "Given the leverage that his captives gave him, it was not a situation where it would have been appropriate for police to announce their presence and attempt to negotiate a resolution."

Gustafson "created" an incident where it would "only likely be resolved by force," she said.