Anonymous vows vengeance against Canadian Mounties for shooting dead masked protester

Anonymous has vowed vengeance by identifying the police officer who shot dead a member of the activist group who was reportedly wearing the iconic Guy Fawkes mask during a demonstration in British Columbia.

Anonymous has promised "vengeance for our fallen comrade" who was shot at a protest against a controversial dam project on 17 July. The victim of the shooting has yet to be named as his family has requested time to inform members of his extended family, but the British Columbia police are expected to announce the name on Monday (20 July).

The shooting took place after officers had been called to a disturbance at a public meeting about the Site C dam project in Dawson Creek, a hydro-electric project on the Peace River opposed by aboriginals. When the officers arrived they encountered a second person (the victim) and subsequently shot him.

Following the police shooting, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), the province's police watchdog, has been called in to investigate the incident which occurred outside the Fixx Urban Grill in Dawson Creek. The aftermath of the fatal shooting was captured on video which was posted to Facebook.

While reports suggest the victim was wearing the iconic Guy Fawkes mask which has become a symbol of Anonymous, the IIO has refused to say exactly what type of mask the man was wearing.

An eye-witness account given to CBC News suggests the victim was wielding a knife as two armed officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) approached him, and when he refused to put it down, he was shot.

This account differs from that given by Anonymous, claiming the victim wore a pocket knife on his waist and was in the process of complying with the officers when he was shot.

"An RCMP officer mercilessly shot and killed a masked Anon without provocation or cause," the group stated.

Anonymous has already begun its retaliation campaign, knocking the main RCMP websites offline for several hours on Sunday (19 July).

This is part of the group's campaign to "remove the RCMP cyber infrastructure from the Internet" as it calls on members to "march, create and sign petitions, hack, dox [until] all demand and justice is met".

The hackitivst collective has also offered to raise funds for the victim's burial.

Doxxing

The group leading the campaign - Operation Anon Down - also tweeted on Monday (20 July) that it had accessed documents marked "secret" inside the Canadian government, warning: "It's not just a DDoS op anymore kiddos."

In an emailed statement released over the weekend, Anonymous vowed to "identify the RCMP officer involved, thoroughly dox him - and release that dox on the Internet. Because the world has a right to know every detail about killer cops."

Anonymous has a patchy history with "doxxing" police officers accused of shooting members of the public however, with one member of Anonymous having incorrectly identified the officer accused of shooting Michael Brown in Ferguson last year.

The latest shooting brings to four the number of Anons which the group says have been slain by security forces around the world in countries like Egypt, Turkey and Palestine where 22-year-old Tayeb Abu Shehada was shot dead in the West Bank while also wearing the Guy Fawkes mask.