British Columbia’s police oversight agency has determined that officers acted appropriately when they shot a Tla-o-qui-aht woman after responding to a domestic disturbance call in 2021.
Melinda Martin was shot several times by officers on May 8, 2021 when police entered a residence in the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation community of Hitacu, which is located next to Ucluelet. Court proceedings state that Martin brandished an imitation handgun before being shot by the two officers. Martin survived the incident, which resulted in her hospitalization for four months – plus two charges of assaulting peace officers and use of an imitation firearm. After serving prison time for several other crimes - including slashing a Port Alberni liquor store employee in the neck during a botched theft – on Nov. 6, 2025 Martin faced a judge to plead guilty to the charges from the Hitacu incident in 2021.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. describes itself as an “unbiased, civilian-led agency” that looks into incidents of death or serious harm that could be connected to interactions with the police. On Jan. 9 the IIO released its report on the Hitacu shooting, findings that were not publicly disclosed for almost two years as Martin’s court proceedings were underway. The IIO does not identify Martin in its report or her companion in the Hitacu residence, who sources have stated was Jonathan Thompson. Reports to Ha-Shilth-Sa indicate that Thompson died of a drug overdose shortly after the 2021 confrontation with police.
According to the IIO report, on May 8, 2021 the RCMP responded to 911 calls from the coastal community about a disturbance at a home that had attracted multiple reports of violent incidents in the proceeding weeks. Two officers were refused access to the home, which resulted in Thompson’s arrest.
As he was in the back of the police car, the officers entered the residence, telling Martin that she was in breach of conditions from another conviction, including a stipulation that she not be in that community. Martin was in the bathroom “holding a realistic-looking replica handgun”, according to the report.
“She’s got a gun…she’s got a gun. She’s right there,” said one of the officers, according to the IIO’s account of an audio recording of the incident that was provided by RCMP.
“Get the fuck out of the house!” said Martin in the IIO account of the recording.
The officers backed out into the living room, telling Martin to drop the gun. She exited the bathroom, and moved through the kitchen to the north end of the living room.
The report included an account from one of the officers involved.
“The next time I see the gun like on her left side going towards where [the other officer] is and, uh, and then she gets to the end of the counter, goes towards the living room and then the gun is up,” said the officer in an interview cited by the IIO.
This is when both officers fired several shots, dropping Martin to the floor, according to the report.
Once of those shots shattered the glass door of Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Tyee Ha’wilth Wilson Jack’s home.
“Holy cow, you could hear the shots ricochet off the walls,” he said during an interview with Ha-Shilth-Sa in December.
“It was lucky nobody was working at the band office that day,” he added, as shots were fired in that general direction.
An ambulance was called.
“I’m dying,” Martin is reported to be heard saying in the recording analysed by the IIO.
The officers treated her before the paramedics came.
“Stay with me, stay with me,” said one of the officers in the recording. “Stay breathing. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Stay with me, please, please stay with me…”
Martin suffered gunshot wounds to her midsection, and was in the hospital for at least four months. The IIO report includes her account of the incident, during which she admitted to being intoxicated.
“I opened the door. The police officer yelled at me to get on the ground, and I backed up to close the door. And I was shot. I remember the first three shots and those ones were the ones that hit my tummy,” she recalled. “I woke up in the hospital.”
Where Martin was shot IIO investigators found “a BB gun made as a replica of a Walther PPK/S compact pistol”.
The police officers said they believed this was a real gun.
“Yes, of course. I had no reason to think otherwise,” said one of the RCMP members.
The IIO determined that police “were acting in lawful execution of their duty when they responded to the 911 call”, arrested Thompson and confronted Martin in the home.
“At that point, it was objectively reasonable for the officers to conclude that they faced a significant risk of imminent grievous bodily harm or death, which justified their deployment of lethal force,” stated the oversight agency. “It is worth noting, additionally, that the officers were aware of a history of alleged violence with respect to [Martin]”
The day after the shooting in Hitacu, a family was notified of the discovery of the body of Terrance Mack in a Port Alberni apartment. Believed by police to be the victim of homicide, the father of two had been deceased for up to two weeks before his body was found. Sources have told Ha-Shilt-Sa that Mack’s remains were discovered in a Third Avenue apartment that was being rented by Melinda Martin. No charges have been announced for Mack’s murder, and Martin has not been identified as a suspect in the case.
But although she has not been named by the IIO, the recently released report alludes to this possibility.
“RCMP members were also aware that there was suspicion about [Martin’s] possible involvement in a recent apparent murder,” stated the report.
