Demands for answers are growing after Surrey RCMP shot a mother dead at a home in Cloverdale last week. Community leaders accuse police and an oversight body (IIO) of citing well-worn narratives used against refugees, women and Black people in the fatal police shooting of (Vanessa) Renteria Valencia. They say Valencia was a victim of domestic violence and had recently returned to the home after spending time at a shelter. RCMP say the woman was barricaded in a room and holding a weapon next to a child. There’s no word on whether RCMP tried to deescalate the situation. Valencia’s advocates say police used her husband as an interpreter before she was shot three times.
