For Immediate Release
April 11, 2021

UNCEDED KWANTLEN & KATZIE TERRITORY (MAPLE RIDGE): The family of Kyaw Din, who was killed by RCMP officers in 2019, is calling on Attorney General David Eby to join them in their efforts to get justice for Kyaw. They call on the Independent Investigations Office of BC (BC’s police watchdog) Chief Investigative Officer Ronald MacDonald to overturn his unjust decision to exonerate the police officers, released in September 2020, and refer Kyaw’s file to the Crown for prosecution.

On April 8, 2021, Mr. Ronald MacDonald again denied the Kyaw family’s request to reconsider his Sept 24, 2020, unjust decision. He said that he won’t reconsider his decision because four RCMP police did not commit any wrongdoings when they brutally shot and murdered Kyaw in his bedroom.

Kyaw’s family sent a letter to the Attorney General in February in which they explain that there are two totally different versions of the incident – the Ridge Meadows RCMP’s story and the testimonies of Kyaw’s sister and brother – and as such, the IIO should refer the case to the Crown to determine the truth. They are waiting for a response.

The day Kyaw was killed, Yin Yin Din called 911 to transport Kyaw to the hospital because he was experiencing mild mental confusion relating to his mental illness. Yin Yin Din was standing just a few feet away from Kyaw’s bedroom door and witnessed two police officers enter his room and deploy a taser and then shoot Kyaw.

The two RCMP officers used excessive force and shot Kyaw in the face, head, and torso three times at close range. The police officers entered his room without warning and shot him within a few moments of opening Kyaw’s bedroom door in his small bedroom.

Kyaw’s family says that the IIO’s unjust decision not to send Kyaw’s file to the Crown Counsel for consideration of charges is entirely based on the “contrived, conspired, and flat-out lies” of the four police officers and the two paramedics’ version of how the incident happened that is totally different from the truthful firsthand eyewitnesses, Yin Yin Din and her younger brother, Min Aung’s version of the incident. The IIO unreasonably accepted the police officers’ versions of events at face value and did not believe the first-hand civilian witnesses’ truthful accounts of Yin Yin Din and Min Aung.

It is unreasonable 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” (from the Dins’ letter to Attorney General Eby).

The Din family will speak about their requests to Attorney General, Mr. David Eby, and the IIO to send Kyaw’s file to the Crown, as well as the many inconsistencies in the IIO’s report at an online Zoom press conference.

What: Press conference
Who: Kyaw Din’s family
Where: Zoom
When: Monday, April 12th at 1 pm