RCMP officers fatally shot 15-year-old Chase de Balinhard, an autistic teenager, on Feb. 9 in Surrey.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. confirmed that RCMP officers responded to reports of an individual “armed with a firearm” near Clayton Heights Secondary School last Sunday. Security footage shows the teen walking through the snow, holding an object resembling a firearm to his head. Officers can be heard urging him not to harm himself before he allegedly pointed the object in their direction, prompting them to open fire.
Investigators are working to determine the full circumstances of the incident amid growing questions from the public about the police response and the boy’s death.
Chase’s mother later revealed her son may have been holding an unloaded BB gun. “He made a mistake,” she said at a Thursday night vigil near the shooting site at 185th Street and 70th Avenue. “They shot him with a rifle 30 feet away. It shouldn’t have happened this way.”
A retired RCMP officer told True North that, to his knowledge, officers do not receive specialized training to distinguish “between real and imitation firearms.”
The same officer pointed to the broader issue of mental health crises as a contributing factor in such incidents, noting that a substantial number of police calls “are related to someone in a state of mental distress.”
Surrey Police Services reported handling 18,000 calls in their first 60 days of operation, highlighting the high demand for law enforcement in the region.
This shooting marks the third fatal police-involved shooting in Surrey over the last several months.
The retired RCMP officer who spoke to True North noted such incidents are relatively rare, but also acknowledged three fatal police-involved shootings in Surrey in recent months is an unusually high number for the area.