ASIRT, using video footage from several cameras, found the officer’s action necessary to protect the public from the threat the suspects posed
The Alberta police watchdog has absolved a Calgary police officer who shot a suspect involved in a home invasion following a car chase in 2019.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) found after a five-year investigation that the officer was justified in shooting the suspect who posed a threat to public safety.
The incident took place on Oct. 10, 2019, after police received reports of someone trying to kick into a house on Laguna Close N.E. Officers were told 10 minutes later that two people had returned to the house, one of them holding a gun.
Meanwhile, the caller was yelling for help.
Several police units rushed to the scene and were joined by CPS helicopter HAWCS, which recorded video of the incident.
Officers in the helicopter observed two suspects running from the house toward a Volkswagen Jetta in a nearby alley. They then slid into the car and began driving away.
The two suspects and a civilian witness were followed by two officers in an unmarked SUV. They tailed the Jetta out of the alley as it travelled on Laguna Close towards Catalina Boulevard. Soon after, an individual leaned out of the passenger side and fired three shots at the officers.
Meanwhile, another officer was parked nearby in a marked police vehicle with his colleague. As the Jetta approached their location, the officer got out of the driver’s door and stood outside the vehicle.
He fired six shots in quick succession. The vehicle continued to drive away and was followed by the police helicopter. The car was then parked “a distance away,” after which three people ran from the vehicle. Two were together while the third who fired the shots broke off from the group and continues to remain unknown.
The two were arrested and the driver was found with a large wound track running from the back left side of his head to the top of his left ear. Police determined it was a graze wound from one of the bullets fired by the previous officer.
The injured man was subsequently taken to hospital and received six sutures for the wound. No police officers were injured during the interaction.
ASIRT, using video footage from several cameras, found the officer’s action necessary to protect the public from the threat the suspects posed.
“The force used was proportionate, necessary, and reasonable in all the circumstances,” the report stated.
“As a result, there are no grounds to believe that an offence was committed.”