IIO DENIES TO SEND KYAW DIN’S MURDER CASE TO THE CRIMINAL COURT

IIO BLOCKS THE FAMILY’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE

IIO UNJUSTLY AND BIASEDLY SIDES WITH AND PROTECTS THE POLICE OFFICERS WHO MURDERED KYAW

IIO (Independent Investigations Office)

Kyaw Maung (aka Kyaw Din) was brutally shot and murdered by Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers on August 11, 2019, in his own bedroom for no justifiable reason. The two police officers used excessive force unnecessarily and brutally shot Kyaw with a Taser Gun and firearm in the face, head, and upper right chest three times at close range without Kyaw attacking them with the knife.

On August 11, 2021, Yin Yin Din (YYD) called 911 to transport her brother Kyaw to the hospital because he was having mild mental confusion as he was not taking his medication for his mental health issue.

After the two Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers arrived at Kyaw’s residence
Ms. Yin Yin Din told them that Kyaw was presently did not like to go to the hospital with them at that time. Yin Yin Din told them that three older siblings would be arriving within 10 to 15 minutes and everything would be okay as Kyaw relationship with his Older Siblings was such that he would be more likely to listen to the Older Siblings who would talk to him and advise Kyaw to take his medication or go to the hospital later.

One of the officers told Ms. Yin Yin Din that he was calling an ambulance and advised her to take Kyaw to hospital by herself without police involvement as the police officers discovered that Kyaw was calm and sitting peacefully in his bedroom, was non-violent, and not at risk of self-harm.

Two paramedics with the BC Ambulance Service arrived at the Din Residence in about 5 minutes. Ms.Yin Yin Din again went to Mr. Kyaw Din’s Bedroom and asked him that an ambulance had arrived and if he liked to go to the hospital.

YYD saw Kyaw was sitting peacefully in his bedroom transferring a bag of sugar into a peanut butter jar for storage. Kyaw told Ms. YYD that he did not like to go to the hospital at that time. YYD returned to the police officers and the Paramedics and explained to them that Kyaw was peacefully sitting in the Bedroom but that he was unwilling to go to the hospital with them at that time. YYD told them that Kyaw’s three older siblings would be arriving within 10 to 15 minutes and everything would be okay as Kyaw would listen to his older siblings (one older sister and two older brothers) who would talk to him and advise him to take his medication or go to the hospital.

YYD as advised by her three older siblings suggested to the police officers and the Paramedics that they could leave the house and she would call them again if their assistance was necessary as Mr. Kyaw Din did not like to go to the hospital at that time and their assistance was not urgently needed. If the police officers had listened to Ms. Yin Yin Din’s request and left the house as Kyaw was not harming himself or anyone, he would be alive and well today.

While talking on the police radio, one of the police officers asked YYD the language
Kyaw speaks. She told him that it was Burmese. Within a few minutes, two additional RCMP police officers arrived. One was armed with a Conducted Energy Weapon (“CEW”), otherwise known as a taser gun, and the other one( he has gray hair and wearing a blue uniform shirt and a blue baseball hat) acted as the highest-ranking officer on the scene and took responsibility and control over the conduct of the other officers, told YYD that they were going to speak to him.

YYD earnestly pleaded with the police officers to wait for the arrival of Kyaw’s three older siblings who were on the way and would be arriving within 10-15 minutes and
everything would be okay as Kyaw was sitting peacefully in the Bedroom, was non-violent, and not harming himself or anyone..

Despite Ms. YYD’s repeated efforts earnestly requesting the officers to await the arrival of Kyaw’s three Older Siblings, the highest-ranking police officer insisted that they would speak to Kyaw.

The four RCMP police officers and two paramedics entered the house and asked YYD where her brother, Kyaw’s room was. YYD said that the bedroom was at the end of the hallway. She was ahead of the police officers down the hallway towards Kyaw’s Bedroom.

She was standing at the doorstep of Kyaw’s bedroom. She opened Kyaw’s bedroom just a few inches wide and spoke again to Kyaw. He was seated in a chair beside his bed opening a bottle in his hand. YYD asked him if he liked to go to the hospital. He replied that he didn’t like to go at that time.

YYD continued to plead with the officers not to enter the Bedroom and to await until Kyaw’s three older siblings arrived. She explained to the officers that once Kyaw’s older sister and two older brothers were on the way and would arrive in a few minutes, everything would be okay as the older sister and brothers would talk to him and, he definitely would listen to his older siblings.

She told them that she was concerned that Kyaw might probably throw a bottle at them if he got upset as he told her that he did not like to go to the hospital at the time. She seriously and openly requested the police officers not to shoot her brother. She told them that Kyaw was a good person, peaceful and not violent.

Although Ms. Yin Yin Din repeatedly pleaded with them not to enter Kyaw’s room yet, but to wait for the arrival of Mr. Kyaw Din’s older sister and two brothers in about 5-10 minutes, one of the police officers, said that they did not need to wait for her older sister and brothers’ arrival. He said, “We don’t need to wait for your sister and brothers to arrive. We won’t shoot your brother. We know how to handle people like him who have mental health issues. We deal with them all the time.” Then, he said that he did not
even have a gun in a laughing voice.

The highest-ranking police officer and the one armed with the taser gun asked YYD to back up a little bit. YYD moved just a few feet behind them. The highest-ranking police officer opened Kyaw’s bedroom door saying, “Are you ok?”, and both of them quickly entered Kyaw’s bedroom. None of the officers spoke to Mr. Kyaw or announced their presence prior to entering Kyaw’s bedroom.

YY D saw the back of the police officer who started shooting by pointing/aiming the taser gun at Kyaw in the chest area from about a few away in a face-to-face position. Within a few seconds, YYD heard the deployment of a CEW, or Taser Gun and then saw a bottle thrown inside the bedroom, which struck the inside bedroom wall (the bedside wall) and then three gunshots that struck Kyaw in the left cheek, the top left side of his head, and the right side of his chest. Kyaw was fatally wounded and died at the scene.

YYD and everyone in the house was ordered to get out of the house. Within, a few minutes, Kyaw’s three older siblings, arrived. About a dozen more police officers had already arrived and taped and seized the house.

After approximately 30 minutes, the police officers sealed off Kyaw’s residence with yellow tape, YYD and the siblings while standing by the garage door on the driveway of their residence clearly heard the sound of pounding (banging) the drywall inside their residence for a few minutes since the front door of the house and the window were opened.

The highest-ranking police officer and the one armed with the taser gun stayed in the house for one hour. The IIO forensic investigators, Ms. Allison Franz, and two male forensic officers arrived approximately around 5 pm. YYD saw three police officers who shot Kyaw Din with a taser gun and firearm, exited the back door of the house, and very briskly walked and left the house.

The IIO forensic investigators stayed inside our residence for nearly four to five hours. At around 9:30 pm, a white van arrived and to transport Kyaw’s body away. Minutes before Kyaw’s body was brought out of the house and put into the van, two police officers, arrived and stood by the van.

Constable Yoon Gyo (David) Jung standing just a few feet away from YYD and the family, inappropriately laughed out loud for no reason, while Yin Yin Din and family members in unimaginable grief standing, watching and waiting for to get a glimpse of their beloved brother, Kyaw’s body.

Constable Yoon Gyo (David) Jung’s inappropriate action of laughing out really loud while YYD and the family members in crisis grieving the sudden horrendous death of their brother, Kyaw was totally unprofessional and inhumane.

He behaved unethically with the malicious intention to further escalate the situation and, to provoke conflict and confrontation between the police officers and the grieving family members.

The family of Kyaw was not allowed to get into the house until 1 am. and waited for nearly twelve hours in their sister’s car parked in their next-door neighbor’s driveway, and were allowed to get into the house around 1:00 am after the police removed the tape around their Residence. The family members were indescribably traumatized, brokenhearted, and shocked to see Kyaw’s Bedroom stained with his blood all over. The edge of his mattress was soaked with his blood with pieces of his skin in it. There were big pools of his blood in his bedroom floor and hallway.

In the hallway, we saw a dent on the wall of the hallway damaged by a weight for the first time. They (the police and IIO forensic officers) ransacked Kyaw’s belongings. All his belongings were scattered around and a lot of his belongings were put into Ms. Yin Yin Din’s room that was crowded and messy all over.

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of BC investigated Kyaw’s death. The Chief Civilian Director of IIO, Mr. Ronald MacDonald, and the investigation team released their decision on September 24, 2020, which is entirely wrong, biased, and unjust denying to refer Kyaw's file to the Criminal Court for consideration of charges.

Mr. Ronald MacDonald and the IIO investigation team sided with the police officers. He unreasonably accepted the police officers' and paramedics’ contrived, conspired, and flat-out lies version of the incident at face value, but did not believe the first-hand civilian witness, Ms.Yin Yin Din’s truthful evidence.

Mr. Ronald MacDonald’s decision and analysis of the incident throughout the IIO’s public report is absolutely wrong because it is entirely based on the flat-out lies and the incorrect, inconsistent, and contrived statements of the four Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers and the two paramedics in order to falsely establish that the police officers did not commit any wrongdoing when they entered Kyaw’s bedroom, brutally shot Kyaw with both a Taser Gun and firearm using excessive force unnecessarily and murdered Kyaw in his own bedroom without attacking them.

There are two totally different versions of evidence. The contrived conspired, and flat-out lies of the four Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers’ and the two paramedics’ version of how the incident happened is totally different from the Civilian firsthand eyewitnesses, Yin Yin Din’s and my brother, Min Aung’s truthful version of the incident.

Also, the two paramedics flatly lied that Yin Yin Din was with them about 15 feet away from Kyaw's bedroom. One of them lied that I was in the kitchen and did not see anything that happened to Kyaw is totally unacceptable. The police officers did not say, "Taser, Taser, Taser", "Drop it, drop it", "He's got a knife, back out", "shots fired". The officers and the paramedics totally made these things up and lied that they heard them. Yin Yin Din was standing just a few feet from Kyaw's bedroom and did not hear any of these at all. 
The most terrible thing in the IIO report is that they have changed/switched the Subject Officer who shot and murdered Kyaw with the firearm. In fact, the police officer described as Subject Officer in the IIO Public Report did not enter Kyaw's bedroom on that day. The Subject Officer was not near Kyaw’s bedroom during the incident. Only two officers, the officer with the Taser Gun and the highest-ranking supervisor officer with the gray hair entered Kyaw’s bedroom. The two of them used excessive force unnecessarily and shot Kyaw with both the Taser Gun and the firearm, and brutally murdered him for no justifiable reason in his own bedroom.

The IIO has blocked Kyaw’s family access to justice by denying to send Kyaw's file to the Criminal Court for prosecution. On March 7, 2021, YYD and the family pointed out to the Chief Civilian Director of IIO, Mr. Ronald MacDonald, and the investigation team to review all the incorrect and inconsistent statements throughout the IIO’s public report, overturn their decision and transfer his file to the Criminal Court for consideration of charges because the Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers evidently committed wrongdoings, murder, and criminal negligence. He said that he wouldn’t reconsider his decision because any of the police officers did not commit any wrongdoings when they brutally shot and murdered Kyaw in his own bedroom.

Mr. Ronald MacDonald responded to the family in his April 8, 2021 letter; “I have reviewed your material. However, further to my letter of March 9, 2021, the decision captured in my Public Report on this matter remains my view of this case. It contains my decision based on what I find to be the facts of this matter. Where my findings differ from your positions, the Public Report explains my rationale. For example, your recent correspondence contains your suggestion on where you were standing when this incident occurred. However, I explained in the Report the evidence that is contrary to your position, including evidence you previously provided to my investigators.
I will not be reconsidering my decision that concluded there are no reasonable grounds to find an officer committed an offense in this matter. I continue to find the decision made is the proper one based on the evidence and the law.”

Mr. Ronald MacDonald unjustly, unreasonably stated, that he could not rely on the truthful evidence of the firsthand eyewitness, Yin Yin Din of the incident because Yin Yin Din had provided inconsistent evidence regarding my position (where I was located when the incident happened on August 11, 2021) to his investigators.

In order to prove that YYD had provided consistent evidence to the IIO investigators, YYD made FOI request to release IIO interview statements and IIO investigation materials ( faced “deemed refusal”, extremely long delays; and waited over eight months to get my interview statements from FOI). Finally, received them on August 5, 2021.

Based on my IIO interview statements, I have now proved that I had provided consistent evidence to the IIO investigators regarding where I was located at the time of the incident, and other significant inconsistent evidence documented in the IIO investigation materials that Mr. Ronald MacDonald and the IIO investigation team failed to mention and clarify in the Public Report.

The two paramedics flatly lied that I, Yin Yin Din who witnessed the incident first-hand was located twelve feet away from Kyaw’s bedroom at the time of the incident. In fact, I was standing just a few feet away from Kyaw’s bedroom door and witnessed two police officers enter Kyaw’s bedroom. without warning and shot him with both a taser gun and a firearm murdered him within a few seconds of opening Kyaw’s bedroom.

The not-yet-identified Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers who viciously murdered Kyaw violated Kyaw’s most basic human right to life. It is unacceptable that none of the four Ridge Meadow RCMP police officers involved has been held accountable in any way for the shooting and killing of our innocent and harmless beloved brother, Kyaw.

It is totally unjust and inappropriate that the “IIO usurped the role of the trier of fact by weighing conflicting evidence in the absence of cross-examination and making findings of fact on the ultimate issues that would be determined through the criminal justice process, first, with an assessment of the evidence by Crown Counsel, and ultimately, at trial.”

The analysis of the IIO’s public report is totally not true, not rationale, not just, because it is entirely based on the contrived, conspired, evidence and flat-out lies of the four police officers and the two paramedics' version of how the incident happened. 

Because there are reasonable grounds that the Ridge Meadow police officers have committed murder, wrongdoing, and criminal negligence, we are calling on the Chief Civilian Director of IIO, Mr. Ronald MacDonald, and the investigation team to overturn their current absolutely wrong, irrational, unjust decision and transfer Kyaw’s file to the Criminal Court for consideration of charges. 

Based on my IIO interview statements, I have proved that I have provided consistent evidence to the IIO investigators regarding where I was located at the time of the incident, and other significant inconsistent evidence documented in the IIO investigation materials that Mr. Ronald MacDonald and the IIO investigation team failed to mention and clarify in the Public Report.

Mr. Ronald MacDonald and the IIO investigation team did not mention the fact that the IIO forensic investigators, Ms. Allison Franz and Mr. Ken Garley had attended the Abbotsford Regional Hospital for the autopsy for Kyaw on August 15, 2019, and seized a Taser Probe from the upper left chest of Kyaw. ( documented on Page 33 of FOI Request IIO File 2019-144, AP: MAUNG, also called IIO-2020-06038-Response Records.pdf). Mr. Ronald MacDonald and the IIO investigation team had failed to even mention and clarify this kind of significant evidence in their IIO Public Report released on September 24, 2020.

Also, it is documented on pages (596-598) of the record the BC Emergency Health Services Report print-out that our beloved brother, Mr. Kyaw Maung suffered from cardiac arrest at any time before or during contact with the Ridge Meadow RCMP police officer. One of the most significantly inconsistent evidence of the police officers’ is the cover-up of the identity of the police officer who shot and murdered Kyaw with the firearm. On Page 133, it is well-documented that the color of the uniform (duty) shirt, of the Subject Officer who shot Kyaw with the firearm, is BLUE.

Also, on Page 553, it is well-documented that the color of the Subject Officer’s uniform shirt (Tag no. 23, stored in bag #23) is BLUE. However, the color of the four police officers’ uniform shirts changed to GRAY which is clearly documented on page 613, the Forensic Identification Occurrence Report.

The firsthand truthful eye-witness of the incident, Ms. Yin Yin Din clearly saw that the highest-ranking police officer, WO2, who opened and entered Kyaw’s bedroom was wearing a BLUE uniform (duty) shirt and a BLUE baseball hat. The change in color of the uniform duty shirt of the Subject Officer clearly documented in the IIO investigation materials was not even mentioned and clarified by the Chief Civilian Director of the Independent Investigations Office, Mr. Ronald MacDonald, and the IIO investigation team in their Public Report released on September 24, 2020, at all.

Having significantly serious incorrect, inconsistent above statements of evidence of the police officers and the paramedics, and so many others, Kyaw's file, indeed, needs to be transferred to the Crown Counsel/Criminal Court where all witnesses need to testify under oath so that the truth could be determined, and the traumatized grieving family members of Kyaw will get justice for him.

We respectfully, humbly, and earnestly request everyone, the public, the media, all levels of BC Provincial and the Federal Government of Canada, to join us in our efforts calling on the Chief Civilian Director of IIO, Mr. Ronald MacDonald, and the IIO investigation team to overturn their September 24, 2020, unjust and biased decision that denied to refer Kyaw's murder case to the Criminal Court for prosecution.

Thank You
Yin Yin Din and family