IIO Seeking Witnesses to Incident in Burns Lake (2026-070)

Case: 2026-070 Incident Date: March 24, 2026 Detachment: Burns Lake Location: Burns Lake Agency: RCMP Incident Classification: Serious Harm Case Status: Open - Investigation in Progress

INFORMATION BULLETIN
Independent Investigations Office
For Immediate Release

Surrey, B.C. — The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is seeking witnesses to an incident that occurred in Burns Lake on March 24, 2026.

Information provided by the RCMP states that police first received a call about a disturbance around 3:15 a.m. At around 4:30 a.m., officers arrived at a location on the 500 block of Government Street and arrested a female youth.

Officers placed the youth into a police vehicle where she then requested to go to the hospital where she was taken for assessment.

Later, after arriving at the hospital, the youth was involved in an interaction with police, and one officer was injured by a weapon. The youth also suffered injuries that appear to be self-inflicted and was then treated before being transported to a different hospital.

The IIO was notified shortly after the incident and has begun an investigation.

There are two factors that the IIO considers at the beginning of each investigation:

  1. If there has been an injury that meets the threshold of serious harm, as defined by the Police Act, or a death; and
  2. If there is a connection between the serious harm/death and officer action or inaction.

If both conditions are met, the investigation will continue to examine all available evidence to determine what occurred. At the conclusion of the investigation, the chief civilian director will consider whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that an offence may have occurred.

The IIO asks that any witnesses who have information regarding this matter to please contact the IIO at our Witness Line toll-free at 1-855-446-8477 or via the contact form on the iiobc.ca website.

Background

The IIO is the independent civilian oversight agency of officers and detention guards in British Columbia. It investigates all incidents involving officers or detention guards that result in serious harm or death, whether or not there is any allegation of wrongdoing.
info@iiobc.ca

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