The cell phone video, which is of poor quality and shot at a distance, shows a man crawling forward on his hands and knees towards a couple of police officers. Suddenly, gunshots reverberate through the street, as eight bullets hit Paul Boyd, killing the 39-year-old instantly.
Captured by a bystander, this 2007 incident was one of 461 fatal police encounters in Canada since 2000 — and a new CBC analysis shows that the number is on the rise.
In the absence of a national accounting of such encounters between Canadian citizens and law enforcement, a team of CBC researchers spent six months assembling the first country-wide database of every person who died or was killed during a police intervention.
The records, from 2000 to the end of 2017, contain more than a dozen details on each of the 461 incidents.
Even when adjusted for population growth over the 17-year window, the number of people dying in encounters with police has increased steadily.
“My initial reaction was that there is a failing here in our society,” said Syd Gravel, a retired Ottawa Police officer.
The CBC analysis reveals that more than 70 per cent of victims suffer from mental health and substance abuse problems.