Smoke, a blaring fire alarm, lack of lighting and a sprinkler system combined to create “probably the most chaotic scene” Insp. Drew Robertson had encountered in 16 years of policing.
Robertson testified Tuesday at a public hearing, held by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, into the actions of Ron Kirkwood in the death of 43-year-old Lisa Rauch on Christmas Day 2019.
Rauch had shut herself inside a room at a Pandora Avenue supportive housing building after consuming alcohol and crystal methamphetamine and threatening the unit’s tenant with a kitchen knife.
She died of blunt-force head injuries after being shot by police using an ARWEN weapon — considered a less lethal option than a firearm.
Robertson, a Saanich police officer who at the time had nearly 10 years of experience as part of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team, described standing next to Kirkwood in the doorframe of the unit after officers opened the door to the small apartment. Another officer was kneeling at Robertson’s feet holding a large shield with a view port about the size of a mail slot.
“[The sprinkler system] certainly is spraying down the goggles of my mask and I’m now soaking wet. We’re actually standing in a couple of inches of water at that point,” Robertson recalled.
He described hearing angry, incoherent yelling and thought Rauch’s voice was coming from a loft in the unit.
He saw flames and thought a wall of the unit was on fire.
Over the sound of the fire alarm, Robertson and Kirkwood talked about what to do.
“What is our next move going to be when when Ms. Rauch emerges? What do I want him to do, what am I going to do? We call it ‘what-if’ planning,” Robertson testified. “And my head’s spinning at this stage. This is not a problem that I have seen before.”
Robertson said he expected Rauch to come down from the loft via stairs on the right of the room, and he was scanning the smoky room for movement.
“What I say to [Kirkwood] at that time is ‘I want you to target her with ARWEN as soon as you see her,’ ” he said.
Robertson took up a position officers in the hearing have referred to as “lethal overwatch,” meaning he was ready to use lethal force by shooting his firearm if the ARWEN was not successful in subduing Rauch.
“I don’t want to be forced to have to shoot her if she’s armed with an edged weapon. So I want him to intervene with the ARWEN as soon as he possibly can. He acknowledges that, and I’m sure — I’m confident — that that will occur,” Robertson testified.
There was an immediate need to take Rauch into custody to allow firefighters to fight the fire and prevent danger to other residents, he said.
As he scanned the room, Robertson noticed movement straight ahead of him. He believed he was looking at Rauch standing up with her back to the door and a black couch blocking her lower body from view.
“I can still picture it in my mind very, very clearly,” he testified. He believed she was wearing dark clothing on her legs and lighter clothing on top. He couldn’t see her face or head, but believed it might have been obscured by smoke.
Robertson yelled “Contact” to indicate he had seen Rauch. Within a second, he heard a shot from the ARWEN.
“The next thing I see is Ms. Rauch fold forward away from me,” he said.
That’s when Robertson realized he had been mistaken: What he believed to be her abdomen was actually her head.
Robertson yelled something to the effect that Rauch had been hit in the head. He heard two shots, but none after that, he testified.
Robertson said he was relieved at the sound of the ARWEN firing. He believed it meant officers could safely remove Rauch from the room without using lethal force and firefighters could get in to extinguish the fire.
“Even now, I can’t think of what we would have done next had she not appeared there and Ron hadn’t fired. I was out of options,” Robertson said.
If he had been holding the ARWEN, he would have taken the same shots, Robertson testified.
Chris Considine, counsel for the OPCC, pushed Robertson on this, noting proper training dictates that officers have a clear visual of a person when firing an ARWEN to avoid hitting someone in the head, neck or clavicle, which can be fatal.
Kirkwood did not have a full, clear visual of Rauch when he fired at her head, Considine said. Robertson agreed.
“So you would have been prepared to accept the risk that her head would have been hit?” Considine asked.
“I would have never considered that was a risk,” Robertson replied.
Considine asked why officers didn’t wait until smoke cleared before firing, saying firefighters testified that the flames were out by the time the ARWEN was fired.
Robertson said the question makes sense with everything that’s known in hindsight. “But when it’s happening in that chaotic scene over a matter of a few seconds, there isn’t time to formulate a different plan, to think critically about what’s happening, to perceive that the fire has now gone out, that the risk has changed,” he said.
Kirkwood faces allegations of misconduct under the Police Act related to use of force and a lack of documentation of the incident. The hearing continues Wednesday.
