OFFICER SHOT IN RAID ON THE MEND

Investigation Ongoing into Events Surrounding Shooting in Crack House

The New Westminster police officer recently shot during a raid on a
Brow of the Hill crack house is on the mend.

"The officer will recover at home from a lot of bruises and a couple
broken ribs," said Staff Sgt. Casey Dehaas, spokesperson for the New
Westminster Police Service.

The officer spent several days in Royal Columbian Hospital, where
doctors monitored his condition to make sure there wouldn't be
internal bleeding. The officer was in "good spirits" and received
many visits from family and friends during his hospital stay.

"He was let out before Christmas," Dehaas said. "He is at home recovering."

Police aren't saying where the police officer who shot him is from,
since the emergency response team is an integrated team that includes
officers from four communities: New Westminster, Abbotsford, Delta
and Port Moody.

"(The officer) has been put on administrative leave pending the
outcome of this investigation," said Dehaas, explaining this is
normal procedure after a shooting involving a police officer.

The shooting is being investigated by the integrated homicide team
which, in addition to looking into killings, looks at cases in which
there was a police shooting.

Counselling has been provided to all officers involved.

The homicide team will look at "what happened, what went wrong,"
Dehaas added. "That's what the investigation looks at. What can we do
differently?"

He noted that, contrary to some reports, the emergency response team
is still operational.

"The team was never suspended, but it was stood down until they could
get together and reevaluate."

The team met soon after the shooting - it took a few days to
coordinate because many of the officers do come from far away - and
has since been fully operational.

While the team had been stood down, the Vancouver emergency response
team was asked to fill in if anything happened.

As it turned out, nothing did and everything is back to normal.

Dehaas said the Vancouver squad has been asked in the past to fill in
when the integrated team has had to be out of town for some reason.