METRO VANCOUVER - For the first time in decades, a B.C. police officer has been charged with murder for his role in a fatal shooting while on duty.

Delta Police Const. Jordan MacWilliams, a former member of the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team, is facing one count of second-degree murder for the fatal 2012 shooting of Merhdad Bayrami, 48, during an armed standoff.

Neil MacKenzie of the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch said the charge was filed against MacWilliams Monday in B.C. Supreme Court.

The young officer, a cop for about five and a half years, appeared in a New Westminster courtroom and was released on bail.

MacWilliams had been on the emergency response team for just seven months when he and other officers were called to New Westminster’s Starlight Casino on Nov. 8, 2012 to deal with a man outside who had a handgun.

Bayrami was shot on a pathway near the casino after a five-hour standoff. He died later in hospital.

The Independent Investigation Office reviewed the case and submitted a report to Crown counsel, MacKenzie said.

The Crown requested additional information from investigators, which was provided earlier this year and led to the murder charge being approved, MacKenzie said.

Vancouver lawyer Ravi Hira said he has never heard of a B.C. case of an on-duty ERT officer facing a murder count.

“These types of cases are very rare and certainly in British Columbia in the 32 years that I have been practising, I have never come across a police officer charged with murder in the course of executing his duties as a police officer, in particular as part of an ERT team,” Hira said.

“While such charges are very rare, the system leading to charges is a very careful robust system. Charges are not lightly laid.”

He pointed to a recent Ontario Appeal Court case where a Toronto ERT member was originally charged with second-degree murder after his gun went off during a 2010 arrest.

After a preliminary hearing, a judge threw out the murder charge and said the Crown had not met its burden for manslaughter either. The Crown appealed and lost earlier this year.

Hira said police officers do have the ability to use deadly force, as long as it’s not determined to be excessive.

“Police officers have an additional defence beyond ordinary citizens because their duties require them to act. They can’t walk away,” Hira said. “The Crown has to prove it was excessive beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Former B.C. solicitor general Kash Heed, a cop for 30 years, also said a murder charge against an ERT member is almost unheard of.

“Very seldom when they use that level of force [the ERT] are there charges,” Heed said. “I’m surprised.”

Heed said there have been more cases of murder charges laid against police in Ontario, such as the one laid last year against Toronto Police Const. James Forcillo after teen Sammy Yatim was fatally shot on a streetcar while wielding a knife.

“There have been a couple in Toronto where the officers have been charged,” Heed said. “So there may be a trend toward it and we are starting to see it here in British Columbia.”