RCMP officer hit by fragments as colleague shot dead in Coquitlam raid

The RCMP officer leading a drug raid at a Coquitlam highrise on September 22, 2023, was close enough to a fatal shooting to be struck by bullet fragments as her colleague was gunned down without warning, the prosecutor said Monday at the murder trial of Nicholas Bellemare.

Constable Amber Carlson was heading into a 22nd-floor suite on Glen Drive when Constable Rick O'Brien, 6-foot-2 and 233 pounds, was shot first. Carlson felt a spray of blood on her right ear and neck, uncertain whether it was O'Brien's blood or whether she herself had been hit—possibly both. She fell backward, moved left until she hit a wall, then fired four times in the direction of where she believed the shooter to be.

One of her bullets struck Bellemare in the arm. Another went through the window; a third hit the wall. "She returned fire because she thought she was under threat and she was right to do so," prosecutor Theresa Iandiorio told court.

Carlson suffered injuries including bullet fragments to her head, a divot on her forehead, and wounds around her eye and nose. She yelled "shots fired" and "officer down" as the chaos unfolded.

Bellemare is charged with second-degree murder in O'Brien's death and attempted murder of Sergeant Colin Ryder, who was also injured. The defence has argued Bellemare was acting in self-defence and that police failed to announce their arrival or fired first—claims the lead officer and other witnesses denied during questioning.

Carlson testified she knocked on the door and shouted three times that it was police with a search warrant, with five- to 10-second pauses between announcements, before giving the signal for Constable Jaryt Lyons to breach with a battering ram. Prosecutor Iandiorio explained that officers must move quickly after announcing to prevent occupants from setting traps, readying weapons, or destroying evidence.

The trial, now in its 44th day in BC Supreme Court, will hear defence closing arguments Thursday.