Christopher Bloomfield was shot and killed by two RCMP officers while under the influence of hallucinogens.
The 2018 death of Christopher Bloomfield at his Vancouver Island home is a homicide, and police need more help in circumstances like the one in which he died.
The jury investigating the police shooting of a Mill Bay man who was drugged and “delirious” at the time of the incident has reached these conclusions following a coroner’s inquest which has also recommended the deployment of additional mental health liaison teams to the police force.
In a verdict handed down in a Victoria courtroom on Friday (July 5) afternoon, the jury called for the RCMP’s mental health liaison team to be available throughout the region, not just in some parts of the province.
The coroner’s inquest will not determine who is legally responsible for the deaths — and the officers involved have already been cleared of any wrongdoing by the police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. — but an IIO jury could make recommendations on how to prevent such deaths in the future.
The committee recommended providing resources to ensure inquests are held in a more timely manner, to avoid anxiety and stress for witnesses and to allow families time for closure. Six years had passed between then and the inquest, during which time Bloomfield’s mother had died.
The jury’s third and final recommendation was for the RCMP to conduct an internal, independent investigation after every police-involved incident resulting in serious injury or death. An investigation would be separate from the IIO investigation and one that wasn’t conducted in this case, but the jury was not told why.
During the three-day inquest, which began on Tuesday (2 July), jurors heard evidence about how the shooting occurred, the amount of drugs found in Bloomfield’s system and the police handling of the incident.
Police attempted to arrest Bloomfield on November 10, 2018, after Bloomfield’s mother called the local Shawnigan Lake Police Precinct to report that the suspect had drugged and assaulted her. When two officers entered the suspect’s trailer, the suspect lunged at the officers with a knife. Police responded by firing five shots at the suspect.
According to the IIO investigation, witnesses testified that they had noticed recent changes in Bloomfield. On the morning of the incident, Bloomfield told witnesses he had taken LSD and was in a “delirious” state. He accused the witnesses of being “possessed” and attempted to “exorcise” him by thrusting a crystal pyramid into his chest.
Bloomfield’s mother told police that morning that he suffered from mental illness and had been given LSD, and told officers to “expect violence” when they arrested him.
Classifying it as a homicide would not establish responsibility for the deaths, but would result in an official ruling that Bloomfield was not attempting to commit suicide when he attacked the officers.
His mother told police that he had threatened to kill himself, and one of the two officers who shot him reportedly told the third, “We had no choice. He was going to kill himself. Whether we killed ourselves or not, we’re going to hell.”
The recommendations will be published and become part of the public record, but they will not compel agencies to implement the changes.
