Coroner's Jury Wants Better Mental Health Support For Vancouver Transit Police

BURNABY, B.C. — A coroner's jury is recommending that transit police in the Vancouver area work more closely with mental health providers following the death of a man who repeatedly stabbed himself and was shot by an officer at a grocery store more than two years ago.

 

Naverone Woods, 23, was shot by a transit police officer inside a Safeway store in Surrey, B.C., on the morning of Dec. 28, 2014. He was a member of the Gitxsan First Nation who had lived in Terrace and Hazelton in northern British Columbia.

 

The coroner's jury heard three days of testimony and made eight recommendations Wednesday to try and prevent similar fatalities in the future.

 

It recommended that transit police implement a program similar to the RCMP's Car 67 initiative in Surrey, which allows Mounties and a clinical nurse specializing in mental health to work together in responding to calls involving people suffering emotional problems.

 

It also recommended that the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service review the circumstances of the young man's death to identify ways of preventing fatalities in similar circumstances in the future.

 

As well, it wants TransLink and the Coast Mountain Bus Company operating in the Vancouver area to implement training scenarios for their personnel in dealing with people who have mental health issues or are intoxicated, along with giving transit workers direct access to 911, possibly through a panic button. The inquest heard that Woods appeared agitated and had ran into the closed doors of a bus earlier on the day he died.