The death of a neurodivergent teenager at the hands of B.C. RCMP is raising questions from his family and critics about the Mounties’ use of force.
Fifteen-year-old Chase De Balinhard died Sunday, following a confrontation with RCMP officers near Clayton Heights Secondary School.
His mother, Crystal De Balinhard, wants to know what de-escalation training Mounties underwent.
“Did their training kind of go, you know, out the window when they were in the middle of it?,” she said.
The B.C. RCMP told CTV News they received a call Sunday about an individual “in distress and reportedly armed with a firearm” on the schoolyard.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Chase’s family said the teenager had a pellet gun, but not a proper firearm.
Because he was on the spectrum, Chase likely did not understand how serious the situation was when officers arrived, the spokesperson said.
Elenore Sturko, the MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale and public safety critic for the Opposition BC Conservatives, said she’s received numerous emails from concerned parents in her constituency who have children who are neurodiverse.
“I myself am a parent of a child with autism, and I understand it’s frightening,” she said. “You worry about your kid when they leave the house.”Sturko said she will be following up with Gary Begg, the minister of public safety and solicitor general, to communicate these concerns, regardless of the outcome of a probe by the Independent Investigations Office, the watchdog in charge of this case.
‘A different outcome’
Part of Chase’s interaction with police was captured on video and obtained by CTV News.
Temitope Oriola, a professor of criminology at the University of Alberta, said it’s clear from the video that the teenager is in distress.
“Had there been a higher degree of thoughtfulness, a reticence to deploy the most lethal weapon in the arsenal of police, obviously, we might have had a different outcome,” he said.
Oriola added that the mere presence of law enforcement may, at times, exacerbate a situation.
“That’s what research shows” he said. “And so there needed to be a greater degree of carefulness and intentionality and de-escalation of producing the best outcome where the officers and that individual would leave that scene unarmed, and that individual could be provided the help that they need.”
‘Dynamic situation’
Kash Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief and one-time solicitor general, said officers are often making split-second decisions in high risk situations.
“When you have a dynamic situation like that, time is not on your side,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to respond based on what the individual’s actions are.”
Heed added, in some situations, officers are responding to a call where they don’t know the entirety of the individual’s background.
“The officers that are responding don’t necessarily have the information on this individual,” he said.” The assumption I’m making: They’re responding to an individual with a firearm. There’s been reports coming in, and we expect our officers to respond in appropriate fashion in that set of circumstances.”
Officer training
CTV News asked the RCMP and the Surrey Police Service about what training officers receive on responding to calls involving people on the autism spectrum.
Both agencies declined to comment due to the IIO’s investigation.
Sturko added that the case might provide an opportunity to revisit the kind of training officers in B.C. receive.
“Nobody wanted this outcome,” she said. “I can’t think of any police officer I’ve ever met that would have wanted to be placed in a situation like this.”
