Man charged in Burnaby RCMP officer's death was wanted for assault
Burnaby RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang was killed responding to call on Tuesday
A man charged with the first-degree murder of an RCMP officer in Burnaby, B.C., Tuesday was wanted on a previous assault charge at the time of his arrest.
According to court records, a Vancouver provincial court judge issued a warrant for Jongwon Ham's arrest a month before the 37-year-old allegedly stabbed Const. Shaelyn Yang after she and a parks employee approached the tent where Ham had reportedly been living for months.
Yang had been an RCMP officer for just three years. Described by her superiors Tuesday as a "kind and compassionate person," she had been working with the Burnaby detachment's mental health and homelessness outreach team.
Homicide investigators said late Wednesday afternoon that Yang was assisting a city worker tasked with informing the tent's occupant that he was not allowed to live at the spot where he was camping.
"My understanding is that Const. Yang was asked to assist in notification to him that he was not permitted to be in the park," Sgt. Timothy Pierotti of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) told a news conference.
"They were not there to remove him at that time, they were just there to notify him of that."
Yang died of her injuries in hospital.
Ham — who was shot after allegedly attacking Yang — made a court appearance from hospital on the murder charge Wednesday morning, along with two previous assault charges that were still before the courts.
He was remanded in custody until Nov. 2.
'I've seen that guy before'
The field where the incident happened was bordered by yellow police tape Wednesday. A tiny mottled yellow North Face tent sat in the middle of the field, which is adjacent to the parking lot next to Burnaby's school board headquarters.
A series of numbered yellow evidence markers led from the tent to a spot a few metres away, where the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team had set up a canopy.
Delivery driver Lakhwinder Dhaliwal watched emergency responders as they tried to save Yang Tuesday. A nearby delivery took him back on Wednesday at almost the exact same time.
The 36-year-old shook his head as he recalled the scene.
"I saw police officers trying to revive her, giving her CPR. And four officers attending the stabber. They tried to revive her, but they couldn't do it," Dhaliwal said.
"(I'm) a little bit devastated, to be honest, since I learned that a female officer just got stabbed to death. It's just terrible to see that. Because I've seen that guy before."
Dhaliwal was one of several people who told CBC that the tent and its occupant had been in and around the field for months.
The field is bordered by a busy main artery on one side and a tennis court and a children's playground on the other. Besides the school board offices, the area is also home to residents of a number of townhouse complexes. A series of paths lead into a nearby wooded area, where several people said they had also seen a tent in the past.
Joe Turtle said he has played Frisbee with his dog on the field where the incident happened. He said his wife had complained several times, and he believes that the tent's occupant has been in contact with parks employees in the past.
"It's been there for a long, long time," Turtle said, noting that the tent used to sit in the far corner of the field but was moved to the middle more recently.
"He doesn't talk. I said hi to him a couple of times, and he just stares at me."
'Regular people like me got no chance'
Court records show that Ham was facing two separate assault charges at the time of the attack.
He was charged with assaulting a man and resisting a Vancouver police officer in February 2021, released on bail in March 2022 and then charged with assaulting someone else just days later.
Ham was released on his own recognizance and then rearrested several times after failing to show up for court. He was supposed to report to a bail officer, and he was also not allowed to possess any weapons.
A judge issued a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 14 after he failed to show up at Vancouver's downtown community court. Ham also failed to show up for another court date which was scheduled for Monday.
The details of the earlier assaults are not contained in the paper trail of court documents, but the details of release, bail and failure to show up to court fit a pattern that has troubled communities around British Columbia struggling to cope with homelessness and occasional violence and petty crime that has been associated with mental illness and addiction.
Mayors from cities including Burnaby have complained publicly about the so-called "catch and release" justice system — criticism that has drawn a sharp rebuke from B.C.'s Crown Prosecution Service.
Dhaliwal said he sees a lot as a delivery driver.
"Burnaby's getting pretty [bad] right now. It's scary. It's not good. Especially if the police can get hurt and get killed, then regular people like me got no chance."
Officer shot suspect before she died
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Taiwan's de facto diplomatic office in Vancouver, said Yang was the daughter of immigrants from Taichung in central Taiwan, and office staff had been in contact with RCMP.
A spokeswoman for the office said it did not know where Yang's parents were now, and the office had asked RCMP to pass on condolences to Yang's family.
On Wednesday, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. said Yang shot the stabbing suspect before she died. He was taken to hospital to be treated for what paramedics described as critical injuries.
Yang was the only officer to fire her weapon during the incident. The IIO is investigating her actions because the office's mandate is to review all police actions resulting in death or serious harm in B.C.
The RCMP is leading the separate investigation into Ham.
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Police watchdog hopes to finish investigation 'sooner rather than later'
The IIO said its investigators have obtained security video from a nearby building that shows the entirety of the incident that led to Yang's death.
"The field is large, the video is from a distance, but it does give an overview of what occurred that is very helpful to our investigation," chief civilian director Ronald MacDonald told reporters on Wednesday.
Since there was video of the incident, MacDonald said he hopes the IIO's investigation will finish "sooner rather than later" — in a matter of weeks rather than months.
The IIO isn't investigating any other officers.
MacDonald said he could not provide any further information on the suspect because of the RCMP's ongoing investigation.
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With files from Canadian Press