indigenous

The family of Jared Lowndes has never stopped demanding justice

It has been more than two years since Jared (Jay) Lowndes was shot and killed by RCMP. And Jay’s family and friends are not alone in their wait for justice.

Many Indigenous communities across Canada are watching this case, explains Jay’s mother, Laura Holland. She spent the night before the latest update from B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO) on the phone with “mothers and sisters of Indigenous sons and daughters slain by law enforcement — from northern B.C. to Alberta to New Brunswick.”

Lowndes was Wet’suwet’en of the Laksilyu House and a 38 year-old father of two children. He was killed by Campbell River RCMP on July 8, 2021.

B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO), a civilian-led police oversight agency, investigates any incidents where police come in contact with the public and an injury or death occurs. It has been overseeing the case.

After he was killed, witnesses told friends and family that Jay was cornered in a Tim Hortons parking lot when a police service dog was released into his car, where Jay was with his puppy. Neither Jay nor the service dog made it out of the car alive. “The RCMP in Campbell River shot my son, after they started a pursuit that was not necessary,” Holland said at the time.

read more: https://ricochet.media/en/4012/two-and-a-half-years-after-killing-a-wetsuweten-man-rcmp-officers-may-finally-face-charges