Did Majencio Camaso Have to Die?

Majencio Camaso was an immigrant to Canada from the Philippines. He was 33. He had a job in the Victoria, a wife, a small child. He had no criminal record. He lived with his family in an apartment in a sprawling complex of two-storey buildings with leafy green lawns between them, a complex relatively affordable (at least by Victoria's somewhat unrealistic standards). On the surface at least, there was nothing to attract society's attention to him.

But last Sunday, Camaso became so deranged, distressed and dangerous that officers from the Saanich police department concluded that they had no choice but to shoot him in order to protect themselves and the B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics who were with them, trying to assist Camaso.  He died on the grounds of a just-closed elementary school, only a few metres from his car where he'd grabbed a steel pipe and an iron crowbar to use as weapons against the officers.

As is only to be expected, Camaso's death has caused many questions to be asked about the use of deadly force by police officers, and the options available to officers in such circumstances. As Regional Coroner Rose Stanton begins her investigation, one can only hope she will be asking too how it could be in today's society that a man could reach such a point of desperation in his life without some previous help or intervention being provided to him.

Began with 'medical emergency'

The story that unfolds on Sunday morning is a picture of a man who, for reasons still not fully understood, has completely lost his mind, his rationality, his last shreds of self-control. It begins with a call to the Saanich 911 operator at almost exactly 9 a.m. A woman, Camaso's wife, is on the phone saying her husband is "out of control" and that it is "a medical emergency." The line goes dead before the operator can determine what type of medical emergency she might be referring to.

As paramedics and police make their way to the scene, the operator tries several times to make contact with the woman again. At one point Mr. Camaso comes on the phone, but refuses to provide any details of what is going on at the apartment. At another point, the operator can hear a small child crying in the background.

By the time, the officers and paramedics arrive, only a few minutes later, the suite is deserted. But a small fire is burning in the kitchen, and the smell of gasoline is overwhelming. It is obvious that gasoline has been spilled or thrown about the apartment, and efforts made to light the whole place on fire. The officers call the fire department, at just about the same time as the woman calls 911 again, this time from a neighbour's suite where she has fled with the child.

The officers head to the neighbour's to try to obtain more information from her, but they have barely arrived when they get another urgent radio message. The ambulance paramedics have encountered a male, whom they believe to be the out-of-control husband, back outside the original suite, and they need assistance immediately.

Guns are drawn

As the police arrive, the man turns and flees, heading over a small footbridge that separates the apartment complex grounds from the playing fields of Richmond elementary school, next door. The three officers - one male and two female - follow him, urging him to stop and talk to them.

Instead, he heads directly to his white 1986 Mazda car which he has parked, not at the apartment complex, but on the school grounds. He opens the trunk, rummages in it briefly, and comes out with the pipe and the tire-iron. The officers recognize that the scenario is becoming dangerous and draw their police handguns.

They are all yelling at Camaso to stop, to put down the weapons, but instead, the police say, he raises both weapons, one in each hand, and charges directly at the male officer, Const. Kris Dukeshire. Dukeshire tries to retreat, to find a safe place, but they are in the middle of an open field, and there is no cover to be had. As the man continues to charge, ignoring all commands to stop, Dukeshire fires his handgun. The first shot hits Camaso, but does not stop his relentless charge. Dukeshire fires twice more, and Camaso goes down. He has been hit three times in the chest area, and is pronounced dead at Royal Jubilee Hospital - less than a kilometre away - less than half an hour later.

Poor target for Taser?

Among the questions being asked is why the officers had to resort to shooting Camaso, rather than using some of the less-lethal options that police now use much more often, such as pepper-spray or the Taser, an electronic stun-gun. (Although some cases now show that even Taser use may prove lethal on a person in an extreme state of agitated delirium, the chances of surviving being shot with a Taser are monumentally higher than the chances of surviving taking three bullets from a Glock handgun.)

S.Sgt. Darren Laur, of the Victoria city police, is one of Canada's police experts on the use of force, and the officer who first introduced Taser use to B.C.

"We have used the Taser in some cases where we'd have otherwise had to use deadly force," he confirms, "and we've used it successfully."

All the same, he explains, the Taser won't work in every situation - and he suspects the Camaso case is one in which it wouldn't have been a viable alternative.

"It sounds as if it was a very dynamic situation," he said. "For the Taser to work, you need a controlled situation." He explains that the Taser will stop a suspect only if two electronic darts both hit the person (to complete the electrical circuit), and that is something very hard to achieve with a running, moving target. The fact the scene was unfolding out of doors, in a public area, with little cover or way of hemming the suspect in, also made the scenario much more difficult to handle, he said. 

More to learn

What remains most unclear is what caused Camaso to become so completely out of control in the first place. Const. Chris Horsley, the media spokesperson for the Saanich police department, says that detectives are now looking at the possibilities: Did Camaso have any history of mental illness or any medical condition that could have caused his bizarre behaviour? Was there any indication that he'd been ingesting drugs or alcohol that caused him to lose control? Were there any other sudden stressors in his life that led him to become so completely unhinged?

And somehow, somewhere underneath all that the other questions: didn't someone, somewhere, notice that this man was falling apart, unable to cope? And somehow couldn't our community have provided him enough help that he did not end up deranged and violent on a school playing field, the only likely end a policeman's bullet?

The life and death of Majencio Camaso may offer lessons about how to prevent the next such tragedy. The Tyee will report further on this case in the days ahead.

Barbara McLintock is the Victoria-based contributing editor to The Tyee.