Man and woman killed after hostage standoff in BC

A man and a woman have been killed after a 10-hour overnight hostage situation in Surrey.

RCMP officers were sent to a home in the city at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday after reports of a man armed with a gun and holding a hostage.

“Multiple efforts were made throughout the night and into the morning to engage the barricaded male and a female hostage within the home in order to peacefully resolve the situation,” the RCMP explained.

“At approximately 7:30 a.m. members of the emergency response team entered the home and a confrontation with the barricaded male ensued.”

.@iiobc IIO Deploys to Officer-Involved Shooting in Surrey (2019-061)
https://t.co/7OiFzB1lpi

— IIOBC (@iiobc) March 29, 2019

The man died at the scene from a gunshot wound and a woman with serious injuries was taken to hospital but later died.

Nobody else was harmed.

The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia, which looks at police-involved shootings, was sent to the scene.

Chief civilian officer Ron MacDonald said police fired gunshots at the scene.

The office will consider the possibility that police shot the man, he added.

“It could also be a situation where those injuries were caused by the man himself. We just don’t know that at this point in time,” he said.

The office also does not yet know the details of the woman’s injuries or what caused them, he explained.

“In any of these cases, we often want to try to determine what the background was, what brought these people to this situation,” MacDonald said.

“It can sometimes explain their actions that they may have taken with respect to their interactions with police. In that sense, it’s quite relevant.”