Warning: This story discusses intimate partner violence that may be triggering for some readers.
“The RCMP killed Vanessa Rentería — the IIO just cleared them,” said Brian Seremba, co-founder and staff director of BC Community Alliance (BCCA).
The BCCA is a Black-led organization that’s dedicated to addressing the structural inequities created by racism, in particular anti-Black racism.
The organization has added its voice to the call for change after the Independent Investigations Office, the independent civilian oversight agency of the police in British Columbia, released a public report on Friday (Sept. 26) that absolved the police of wrongdoing in the shooting death of the Surrey mother – an Afro-Latina woman from Colombia – on Sept. 19, 2024.
In the early morning hours that day, Surrey RCMP received a call about a “disturbance” at a home in Cloverdale, in the 6200 block of 180A Street.
Police say a woman, whom family later identified as Vanessa Renteria Valencia, had locked herself in the bathroom with her daughter and was allegedly holding a pair of scissors near the child. Less than an hour later, at about 5:30 a.m., an officer shot Vanessa, who died at the scene.
The IIO started an investigation into the shooting shortly after Vanessa’s death.
Vanessa had moved to Canada from Colombia with her partner in 2022. She was an active community member and was set to start English lessons in what would be the week after her death.
In a previous interview with Black Press Media, Vanessa’s sister, Sandra, said her sister and niece had spent at least two months staying in two temporary shelters for women who were experiencing intimate partner violence. But Vanessa left the shelter in late August when she could not find a place to live, and she returned to the Cloverdale home where she lived with her husband and brother-in-law.
Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services, said, “There is evidence that she left the transition house she was staying due to the house being defunded by the province of British Columbia and she eventually returned to a place she had previously fled.”
The chief civilian director of the IIO, Jessica Berglund, stated in her report into the shooting: “I do not consider that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment and therefore the matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.”
Seremba said in a recent news release: “Once again, the system has written its own permission slip. Once again, a woman of colour is killed. Once again, the child she died protecting is left behind—in the care of the man she feared. And once again, the police walk away without consequence.”
Vanessa’s death points to a bigger pattern of gender-based violence, state violence and systemic neglect, Seremba said.
Similar to Battered Women’s Support Services, the BCAA states several instances where the police failed Vanessa that night.
This includes the use of Google Translate to communicate with Vanessa and a witness on scene.
“A mother, in crisis, trying to protect her child, and the institution responding had no trained, Spanish-speaking support personnel on site. This is beyond negligence. It is calculated disregard,” Seremba said.
The BCCA is calling for the following actions:
– independent, culturally competent crisis response teams— “no guns, no badges, no more deaths in moments of distress”;
– transparency around custody and protection — in any fatal police interaction involving a parent, child welfare decisions must be made in the open, by independent oversight, with community input;
– public release of the officer’s statement — or acknowledgement that no statement was provided;
– investment in care over criminalization—”mental health teams, not militarized responses. Translation services and trauma-informed care, not Google Translate and firearms” and
– community ownership of safety—through Black, Indigenous, and newcomer-led programs “that reflect the realities of those most harmed.”
HELP FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
If you or someone you know needs help with an abusive home situation, resources are available:
SURREY WOMEN’S CENTRE
Surrey Women’s Centre is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support women and girls facing gender-based violence and to help care for women and children escaping violence.
surreywomenscentre.ca
[email protected]
604-589-1868
BATTERED WOMEN’S SUPPORT SERVICES
BWSS offers support and assistance for those in crisis, including community resources and referrals to transition houses, lawyers and medical services.