PLAINCLOTHES POLICE OFFICER SHOT BY FELLOW COP DURING DRUG RAID

A plain clothes police officer was mistakenly shot by a fellow officer
Thursday while executing a drug search warrant at an apartment
building in the 700-block of Fourth Avenue in New Westminster.

The officer shot was a member of New Westminster Police Service's drug
squad, while the officer who fired the round was with the Municipal
Integrated Emergency Response Team (MIERT), made up of members from
New Westminster, Port Moody, Delta and Abbotsford city police forces.

The drug squad member was in plain clothes at the time and was
fortunately wearing a bullet-proof vest. The bullet struck him in the
abdomen and caused significant bruising and possibly some internal
injuries.

The matter is now being investigated by the Integrated Homicide
Investigation Team, which is under contract by the New Westminster
Police to investigate murders and police-involved shootings.

By Friday afternoon the injured officer was reported in good condition
at Royal Columbian Hospital, said Staff Sgt. Casey Dehaas, media
relations officer for the NWPS. Family and friends are visiting him,
however, he was being kept in the hospital for observation. "They want
to make sure there was no damage to internal organs," said Dehaas.

The officer who fired the shot was "traumatized" and was getting
critical incident counselling, said Dehaas.

Police are saying little about how the shooting took place, other than
there were as many as 20 officers involved in the execution of the
search warrant at Fourth Ave. Officers from New Westminster's drug
squad, Operational Support Unit and general duty section and the MIERT
were there when the search warrant was executed.

Police arrested three people -- two men and a woman -- and are
recommending crown counsel lay a number of drug-related charges
against the trio.

According to neighbours living close to the older 10-suite apartment
building, the dwelling has a reputation for drug activity and police
were regularly called to the address.

"This place has been a problem for a very long time. I've been living
here for three-and-a-half years. We see all the crack heads come in
here every single day," said Kurtis Bezea, an employee at the Blue
Bird Dairy, located at Eighth St. "This house has been a problem
for a lot of years. They've had so many drug busts there, I don't know
why they don't tear it down."

He also said there are a number of seniors who live in the low-income
rental building.

"It's really sad that there's a lot of old people that live in that
place and they're good friends with us."

Bezea witnessed the aftermath of the shooting and was amazed at the
police presence. "They were all over the place and there was a lot of
them helping [the shot officer]. It looked pretty serious."

One woman who spoke to the NewsLeader at the scene arrived at the
apartment building to find the property cordoned off with yellow crime
scene tape. The woman, who would not give her name, said the police
were investigating her suite. She also said no one was in her
apartment while she was out.

"Now what am I going to do? I can't go home," she said.

The woman alleges drugs were being dealt out of one of the apartments,
but would not say which one. "It's been a problem for a long, long
time."

Police started investigating the two-level apartment building after
receiving complaints of drug dealing in the building. That
investigation culminated in Thursday's search warrant.