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No charges approved in 2023 Vancouver Island police shooting of man driving stolen skid-steer
BC Prosecution Services said the evidence did not meet its charge standard, ending a review that followed an eight-minute pursuit and five shots fired.
- BC Prosecution Services declined to approve charges against the North Cowichan/Duncan Mountie involved in a skid-steer shooting three years ago, concluding available evidence does not meet its charge assessment standard.
- After David Cochrane, then 31, stole a 3,800-kilogram skid-steer following hospital discharge from a single-vehicle collision, RCMP responded when a 911 caller reported a bandaged man operating the Bobcat on Somenos Road.
- Five officers attempted to stop the machine during an eight-minute pursuit through residential streets into Evans Park, where the acting watch commander fired five shots after Cochrane spun the skid-steer and drove toward him with the bucket raised.
- The Independent Investigations Office found reasonable grounds to believe the officer may have committed offences, yet Cochrane survived life-altering injuries after five months in Victoria hospital, including gunshot wounds to the head and a bullet fragment in his left lower lung.
- BCPS's charge assessment standard requires substantial likelihood of conviction, a threshold the available evidence did not meet, closing the case three years after the March 28, 2023 incident with no criminal charges approved.
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Vernon Morning Star+12 Reposted by 12 other sources
No charges approved in 2023 Vancouver Island police shooting of man driving stolen skid-steer
No charges will be approved against the North Cowichan/Duncan Mountie involved in the shooting of a man driving a stolen skid-steer in North Cowichan three years ago, according to the BC Prosecution Services (BCPS). David Cochrane, then 31, was shot near Evans Park the night of March 28, 2023, after police were unable to get him to stop the 3,800 kilogram (8,500-pound) piece of heavy machinery during an eight-minute, low-speed pursuit. BCPS’s su…
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Total News Sources13
Leaning Left12Leaning Right0Center0Last UpdatedBias Distribution100% Left
Bias Distribution
- 100% of the sources lean Left
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L 100%
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