For the second time this month, police in northern New Brunswick have shot and killed an Indigenous person.
Quebec’s police watchdog said late Friday that it has been called in to investigate the circumstances around the shooting death of a civilian near Miramichi, 170 kilometres northeast of Fredericton.
Friends and family, including Juno Award-winning singer Jeremy Dutcher, have identified the man as Rodney Levi from the Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation, also known as Red Bank.
According to preliminary information given to the Bureau des enquêes indépendantes, RCMP were responding to a call about a disturbed person, and found him in a building with a knife at 8 p.m. local time.
Police allegedly used a stun gun several times “without success,” said the BEI in a news release, and the man was reportedly shot when he charged at police.
He was given first aid and transported to hospital where he was declared dead, said the agency.
Eight investigators have been assigned to the case. The Quebec agency was called in because New Brunswick does not have an independent body that probes police actions involving serious injury or death.
New Brunswick RCMP were not immediately available for comment.
Chantel Moore killed earlier this month
The fatal shooting comes as the use of force by police in Canada, particularly against Black and Indigenous people, is under scrutiny. Video footage was released Thursday of a First Nations chief being punched and tackled during an RCMP arrest in Alberta.
On June 4, police in Edmundston, N.B. were called to check on Chantel Moore by a concerned ex-boyfriend. The responding officer was allegedly confronted by a woman, who had a knife and was making threats, said the police department. The officer shot her and she died at the scene.
Moore, 26, was from Tlaoquiaht First Nation in B.C. but had recently moved to northeastern New Brunswick to be closer to her young daughter.
Healing walks in memory of Moore are planned for Saturday afternoon in several Maritime cities.
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News of Levi’s death shook many in Metepenagiag, which has a population of about 550, and in other Indigenous communities too.
“Rodney was the type of guy who came to my house and shovelled my deck off while I was in the hospital having heart surgery,” wrote Adam Augustine, a Metepenagiag councillor, on Facebook. “Despite the circumstances of this evening … I hope everyone remembers what a big heart he had and how he would help [people].”
With a file from Canadian Press and Sima Shakeri
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