B.C.’s police watchdog says it isn’t recommending charges in the fatal police-involved shooting of Vanessa Rentería, a Colombian refugee, in Surrey last year.

On Sept. 19, 2024, police were called out after reports that a woman was breaking things in her home and had locked herself in the bathroom. Officers say that when they got to the home, they found the woman in the bathroom holding scissors to her baby’s neck. Police say that after officers tried to have a conversation with the woman — who was speaking in Spanish — there was an “interaction” and an officer shot her. She died of her injuries.

Jessica Burglund, the chief civilian director for the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), says the force used by the officer was necessary to protect the baby from its mother.

“I fou

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