By Canadian Press

Chief of N.B. First Nation asks community not to speak to media about shooting

Jun 14, 2020 | 12:42 PM

MIRAMICHI, N.B. — The chief of a New Brunswick First Nation has asked members of his community to refrain from speaking to the media about a police shooting Friday that claimed the life of a local Indigenous man.

Chief Bill Ward of the Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation issued a statement on Facebook on Sunday, saying he was responding to a request from the family of the victim, 48-year-old Rodney Levi.

Ward, who took part in a live, hour-long Facebook session on Saturday, says investigators from Quebec’s independent police watchdog agency are working with family members to “get the best picture possible of the events on that day.”

On Friday night, the RCMP say they received a complaint about an “unwanted person” at a home near Metepenagiag, about 30 kilometres west of Miramichi.

The Mounties say that when officers arrived, they were confronted by a man carrying knives, and there were several failed bids to subdue him with a stun gun.

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That’s when Levi was fatally shot by an officer. He was declared dead in hospital around 9 p.m.

It was the second time that a police officer had fatally shot an Indigenous person in New Brunswick in less than a month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2020.

The Canadian Press