VicPD Officer Gets Called Out for, Like, Major Oopsie in Plastic Bullet Death 💀

The Deets

Alright, fam, listen up. So, there's this Victoria police officer, Sgt. Ron Kirkwood, who's in deep after a public hearing found he committed misconduct. This is all tied to Lisa Rauch, who, like, tragically died after getting hit with plastic bullets. This whole thing happened way back on Christmas Day in 2019.

Here's the sitch: the cops were called 'cause of a fire at some housing joint. Lisa, who was 43 at the time, was barricaded in a suite and allegedly pulled a knife on someone. The cops then fired some projectiles from an ARWEN launcher, and unfortunately, she got hit in the head. She passed away in the hospital a few days later, which is just... 💔.

The hearing, run by retired judge Wally Oppal, basically said Kirkwood messed up big time. According to Oppal, he shouldn't have fired when his vision was blocked by smoke, and the whole situation didn't warrant using potentially lethal force. They do acknowledge that the officer didn't mean to off her, tho.

Turns out, Lisa was just visiting a friend, and they had been hitting the bottle and doing crystal meth before the fire. Kirkwood said he thought Lisa was a danger and was aiming for her torso when he fired. But Oppal cleared him on allegations that he neglected his duty by not documenting his actions, so there's that.

Back in 2020, the IIO (Independent Investigations Office) was like, "Nah, we're not opening any charges," saying there wasn't enough evidence to believe an officer committed a crime. But now, a coroner’s inquest is on the books, so expect more drama. Victoria Police Chief Del Manak said the whole thing was super complicated and that the outcome was def not what they wanted. Major L all around.