Kyle Gianis, a West Kelowna man who survived four separate gangland assassination attempts in B.C., is believed to have died due to self-inflicted wounds following the most recent attempt on his life last weekend.
Shortly after midnight on Thursday, Aug. 5, Vernon North Okanagan RCMP responded to an alleged double-stabbing of two women at a campground near Enderby. Police say the male suspect, Gianis, was acting erratically due to possible drug impairment.
Mounties searched the area, locating Gianis down an embankment near a river around 2 a.m. in medical distress due to what appeared to be self-inflicted injuries. Despite resuscitation efforts, he died at the scene. The two women suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
B.C.’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), confirmed it is also investigating the incident to determine whether police actions or inactions played a role in Gianis’s death.
The IIO said Mounties cautiously approached Gianis with tear gas and rubber bullets before finding him. Officers provided Gianis medical assistance for a full hour before paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead.
Gianis was one of the two people injured in a downtown Kelowna shooting on July 31, the fourth attempt on his life in the past five years, including another one in Kelowna this past March. Prior to that, the Vancouver Sun reported he survived a 2017 gangland hit in Langley, that left his friend Tyler Pastuck dead, and a 2018 shooting in which the assailant entered the wrong home, killing Surrey nurse Paul Bennett.
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@michaelrdrguezmichael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com
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