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Victoria police officer cleared in shooting death of Rhett Mutch

The Victoria police officer investigated in the 2014 shooting death of 20-year-old Rhett Mutch has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. said Wednesday.
RhettMutch.jpg
Rhett Mutch was shot and killed by a Victoria police officer in 2014.

The Victoria police officer investigated in the 2014 shooting death of 20-year-old Rhett Mutch has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. said Wednesday.

“There is no evidence to support that the involved officers had any malice against, or motivation to do harm to, the affected person or use any force against him other than what was reasonably necessary to take him into lawful custody,” the IIO said.

The IIO is a civilian-led office that investigates incidents of serious harm and death involving police.

This is an account of what happened, based on the IIO report and an interview with Marney Mutch, Rhett’s mother.

On the morning of Nov. 1, 2014, Marney was at her Dallas Road home across from Ogden Point when Rhett started texting her.

Marney said her son was upset about losing his job at McDonald’s and wanted to come home. But she wanted him to calm down first and told him not to come.

When she heard a window break half an hour later, she knew it was Rhett.

When he came into her bedroom, she grabbed her phone and told him he’d be going to jail.

At 10:51 a.m., she dialed 911 and followed her only son into the kitchen as she spoke to the dispatcher. She said her son had a no-contact order and was breaking his probation.

Rhett held a serrated steak knife to his stomach with his back against the sink. The dispatcher heard Marney ask him to put down the knife. Rhett said, “I want to die … I hate this life, I hate this world.”

She later told investigators, “he has been saying stuff like this for a long time.”

Rhett lowered the knife, went into the living room and sat in the middle of the couch.

Two officers arrived within four minutes. Others were en route. The dispatcher asked Marney to go outside. She said she would not leave her son. He had pointed the knife down toward the floor and would not hurt her.

The dispatcher broadcast a message saying a man had a knife to someone’s throat.

Marney said this misinformation could have seriously misled officers in their response. She said no one asked her if anyone else was home or if she felt unsafe with her son. “I would’ve said no,” she said.

Marney saw the officers coming toward the front door. She opened the door, saw a big gun and asked, “Whoa. What is that for?”

The officer said, “He’s armed.”

She said, “He’s got a kitchen knife and he’s not going to hurt anybody with it.”

The officer told her they needed to protect her. He told Marney he had a bean-bag gun.

“He’s not going to hurt me. He’s not going to hurt anybody,” she said

She later told investigators, “So like, I wanted him to go away with it. He didn’t. It was frightening. It was only going to scare the hell out of him. … He had tears in his eyes.”

The officer would not let her stay in the house. He could see Rhett sitting on the couch, holding the knife.

As she left, two more officers came in the front door. One held a large gun. She said to them, “This is really overkill.”

An officer called out to Rhett and identified himself. “I’m here to help you,” he said. He asked Rhett to put down the knife. Rhett took a while to respond. Eventually he looked up and said he wanted to die, the officer told IIO investigators.

The officer looked back to see if an ambulance had arrived. In that moment, Rhett stood up.

The officer thought Rhett had dropped the knife and thanked him. Then he saw Rhett had just changed his grip. The blade was pointing to his elbow as he looked at the officer.

“And he’s not staring at me like he was before. … He’s not giving any — but he’s staring at me like he hates me,” the officer told investigators.

He asked Rhett to please drop the knife. He said, “You’re scaring me. I don’t know if you’re going to hurt me or hurt yourself but I don’t want you to do anything. I just want you to put the knife down.”

The officer considered his options. The space was tight, so using a baton and pepper spray was not viable. He couldn’t get a proper shot with the bean-bag gun and if it failed, Rhett might attack him.

“I drop the [bean-bag] shotgun on my side. I put my hand on my firearm and I kept talking to him.”

Rhett looked around and saw other officers had entered his house. Four in total. Another was outside.

Marney told the Times Colonist her son was likely stunned and afraid.

Officers later told investigators they didn’t all know whether anyone else was in the house — something the IIO cited as a major communication failure — and were afraid someone could get hurt.

The officer begged Rhett to drop the knife and talk to him.

“And before I know it, he snaps and he’s charging at the guys on the other side of the house,” said the officer, describing Rhett holding the knife at shoulder height and darting quickly without saying anything.

At 11:02 a.m., an officer in the house shot at Rhett with a bean-bag gun. He hit Rhett’s thigh but didn’t completely knock him down.

Rhett ran toward the officer with the bean-bag gun and another officer, a tactical expert, who said he expected another bean-bag shot. But it didn’t come. There wasn’t enough room to retreat or move quickly. So the officer placed his finger on the trigger of his handgun and shot Rhett in the neck. Rhett fell and dropped the knife. The officer kicked the knife away as other officers ran in. Rhett was bleeding heavily and moaning on the ground.

Marney was standing outside when she heard a booming shot. She heard over a radio that her son had been shot in the neck.

The officer who first spoke to Rhett pressed a towel to the wound and tried to resuscitate him. When paramedics arrived five minutes later, they heard the officers telling Rhett to fight for his life: “Come on buddy, breathe. You can do it.”

But there were no signs of life. Rhett was pronounced dead at 11:29 a.m.

The IIO took 19 months to complete its investigation, something spokesman Marten Youssef said is not ideal. But, “we won’t sacrifice competence for the sake of time.”

The investigation found the shooting officer did not break the law because use of force was justified given the threat of death or serious harm.

Victoria police were not criminally negligent in their decision to confront Rhett rather than withdraw to a barricade position and negotiate.

However, Youssef said IIO investigators raised serious questions about the actions of Victoria police.

“Unfortunately, significant communication failures led to different perspectives amongst different officers as to the need to immediately confront the affected person,” the report says.

Specifically, officers did not all know who was in the house as they entered. The shooting officer said he would have proceeded with an armed barricade and never have entered the house if knew Rhett was suicidal or that no one else was inside.

Victoria police said they will work with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner to review the case, “as we remain committed to continual assessment of our practices. This is especially important given the steadily increasing number of calls from the public requesting that our officers attend to people experiencing some form of crisis,” a VicPD statement said.

Marney told the Times Colonist it was the police response — five officers, some carrying large weapons, cornering her son in the living room — that caused her son’s behaviour to escalate.

“They confronted my son and threatened his life, not the other way around,” she said. “Five big guys with all kinds of ammunition and bulletproof vests should be embarassed to say they feared for their lives in that situation. My son is the only one who had a right to be frightened.”

Confronting someone in a mental health crisis with guns is the wrong response, she said.

She doesn’t believe Rhett wanted to die.

She wants better training for police dealing with people in such circumstances. “Their training [in dealing with mental health incidents] is totally inadequate,” she said. “If this is the best they can do, they’re throwing their own guys under the bus.”

Marney said she’d like to see more attention paid to the mental health of police officers, namely those suffering from PTSD, and non-lethal de-escalation practices.

Acting Victoria Police Chief Del Manak met with Marney before the report’s release. He apologized for the family’s loss and told the Times Colonist the incident has deeply affected the officers involved. They have all had access to supports such as counselling and have returned to work.

Manak said the report shows officers followed their training, “had a plan and used de-escalation tactics, but the tragic part is a 20-year-old man lost his life.”

He said the report revealed officers’ commitment to save Mutch’s life when they immediately provided medical assistance after he was shot.

At the time, police told media an officer was injured during the incident. This turned out to be incorrect.

spetrescu@timescolonist.com

— With a file from Jack Knox