Arkangelo’s family believes he was showing the police officer a utility knife he often carried when he worked with his brother’s landscaping business moments before he was shot
Anna Odo knelt at her son’s makeshift memorial Tuesday near Fraser Way and Fraser Vista, speaking aloud to her boy as family members held her tight, consoling her.
Police fatally shot Mathios (Matthew) Arkangelo, 28, in the northeast Edmonton neighbourhood on June 29. The province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), is investigating the fatal shooting.
Arkangelo’s family gathered at the scene to speak to the media and plead for answers.
“I don’t want to be here. I want to fall down and follow Matt, but God wanted me to stay here to fight for Matt and to know why this happened,” Odo said.
“Why? My son surrendered, his hands (were) up. Why did they have to start shooting him? I have fear now. I can’t sleep at night.”
Dini Arkangelo, Odo’s older son and Matthew’s brother, released a video showing events leading up to the shooting after Arkangelo was involved in a rollover crash on Anthony Henday Drive and 153 Avenue around 9 p.m. the night he was killed.
In a June 29 news release, police said officers were called to a rollover that involved an impaired driver who left the scene on foot. ASIRT’s summary of events did not mention an impaired driver.
Arkangelo said his brother was likely shaken up and dazed from the rollover. The family confirmed he tried to call his common-law wife and talked to his mother on the phone before police stopped him.
‘Nobody deserves to get gunned down’
Arkangelo’s family believes he was showing the police officer a utility knife he often carried when he worked with his brother’s landscaping business moments before he was shot.
“He always had a legal, foldable pocket knife, and he’d use it to cut sod, and those types of things. He was just telling the officer, ‘This is all I got on me,’” Arkangelo said.
“I want the video to go out, and I want to show that he was no threat to anyone around here.
“What triggers me is when I go on social media and I see people saying this awful stuff that he deserves it. First of all, nobody deserves to get gunned down.
“Whatever we do isn’t going to bring my brother back, but if we can use this and avoid this from happening to anyone else — because this is really painful. It’s confusing.”
Odo said she last spoke to Matthew while he was walking around the Fraser neighbourhood, noting the two were close and he lived with her.
The family believes he called her right before the police tracked him down.
“He called me, his voice was deep(er), and he said, ‘Mama, I love you. I got to go,’” Odo said. “I was like, ‘Go where?’
“I knew something was wrong.”
Lack of communication
The Arkangelo family said they have many issues with how this tragedy unfolded and questions about why it took so long for Matthew to receive medical attention after he was shot. They are upset with the lack of communication they received from Edmonton police about finding their son.
At 4 a.m. on June 30, Odo said police knocked on her door to tell her that her son was dead but didn’t say where they could see Matthew’s body or provide any information about why he was shot.
Tom Engel, the family’s lawyer, said via email that police gave Odo a scrap of paper with a phone number for support services but didn’t provide any information about where Arkangelo’s body was.
They weren’t able to see Arkangelo until July 5, when his body was released by the medical examiner and sent to a funeral home — six days after he was killed, according to Engel.
Arkangelo said police wouldn’t give them any details about where the shooting happened. The family had to find out on their own.
Edmonton police haven’t had contact with the Arkangelo family since notifying them of his death on June 30, according to the family.
“The first day it happened, we had no clue what was going on. I started googling ‘man shot by police,’ and I saw the video on Instagram, and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s my brother,’” Arkangelo said.
“We sat at home and just cried … We had no answers.”
The first time they visited the shooting scene, the family received support from community members willing to provide home surveillance video.
Arkangelo said he’s been visiting the memorial site almost daily, and the community has given him all kinds of information about what they saw.
“They all just started coming to us, and for me, that was a relief because I didn’t know the truth. I had all this stuff in my head from what I read,” Arkangelo said.
“As soon as they told us that, I felt vindicated. I felt my brother was innocent. My whole goal is to clear my brother’s name. That’s my whole purpose.”