A coroner’s inquest has found the fatal police shooting of Christopher Bloomfield was a homicide and recommends increased funding for mental-health liaison teams in the RCMP.
Bloomfield died from multiple gunshot wounds on Nov. 10, 2018 after police visited the trailer home he shared with his mother in Mill Bay to arrest him for assaulting and trying to drug her.
The inquest heard that his mother had gone to the Shawnigan Lake RCMP detachment to report that her son was delusional, believed he was channelling the devil, and was talking about ascending to another plane with her.
Marilyn Bloomfield, who has since died, told police her son had pushed her into a hutch in the mobile home they shared at Cedar Creek Mobile Home Park, injuring her back, and tried to drug her.
Officers involved in the shooting testified that Marilyn Bloomfield also said her son had threatened to kill himself if she went to the police.
Bloomfield’s friends described him at the inquest as a passionate advocate for the use of psychedelics for healing and said that he had recently started experimenting with a PCP analog that concerned them and he was in a frantic state the day he was killed.
An analysis of Bloomfield’s blood taken from his chest cavity after his death showed he had at least four substances with hallucinogenic properties in his system, including ketamine, LSD, psilocybin and a PCP analog.
The combination would have put him in a “very disturbed state,” a forensic toxicologist told the inquest.
The jury recommended more resources be allocated to the B.C. Coroners Service to allow for inquests to be held in a timely manner, echoing a recommendation by an inquest jury last fall that looked into the fatal shooting of Aaron Lee Prince by Oceanside RCMP in 2017.
The jury found the nearly six years between Bloomfield’s death and the inquest prevented his family from participating and finding closure, because Bloomfield’s mother died in the intervening time, and it led to stress and anxiety for witnesses.
The jury also recommended the RCMP and Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General provide increased funding to expand availability of mental-health liaison teams, such as Car 67, to operate throughout the province.
Car 67 pairs an officer with a health-care professional to respond to calls involving a mental-health crisis.
The jury recommended the RCMP implement an independent officer review after a police-involved incident where serious injury or death occurred.
The jury heard an independent officer review, an internal process that can be used to ensure officers are held accountable when they’re involved in a shooting, was not done and no explanation was given.
B.C.’s police watchdog cleared the two officers involved in the shooting of wrongdoing. The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. is a civilian-led police oversight body that investigates all police-related incidents that result in death or serious harm to determine whether an officer may have committed an offence.
