Calgary police officer cleared of wrongdoing in 2018 shooting

CALGARY – Alberta’s police watchdog says a Calgary police officer exhausted all options before shooting a man and ultimately killing him in 2018.

Around 10 p.m. on Aug. 30, 2018, officers were called to a gym in the city’s northeast following an altercation involving the man.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says the 25-year-old made comments on his way out that raised concerns for his mental health.

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ORIGINAL STORY: Man dies in hospital after confrontation with police in N.E. Calgary (Aug. 31, 2018)

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Police said he sped off a few hours later from an area near the gym and officers followed him as he drove dangerously through residential neighbourhoods to his home.

He refused to come out, but police decided to leave for fear a confrontation could turn violent.

Around 1 a.m. on Aug. 31, the man posted a video to his Instagram account that showed him saying “Beat me to death or run me over…. or whatever you can, kill me…. Thank you.”

Police, in the meantime, had spoken to the man’s family about his mental health.

After hours of erratically driving around, the man parked at his family home and locked himself inside.

ASIRT says police and members of the man’s family spoke to him on the phone repeatedly over the next couple of hours but he sounded agitated and refused to exit the residence with empty hands.

He had also threatened to harm or kill police officers and members of his family, who had been removed from their home prior to his arrival.

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Eventually, he stopped answering the phone altogether, police stood down and the family found somewhere else to spend the night.

A while later, officers patrolling the area spotted the man and noted he was carrying the knife. Fearing for public safety, officers decided to arrest the man.

They say officers shot plastic projectiles from a non-lethal ARWEN rifle at the man, a weapon primarily used during riot or crowd control situations.

It had no visible effect on the suspect.

He took off, and after a while of trailing him, officers fired the ARWEN rifle at him again. It, again, had no impact.

The suspect then ran at and began to attach the officers with the knives in his hand. The officer then pulled out his gun and shot the man at close range three times.

The man was rushed to hospital where he later died.

ASIRT investigators have concluded, nearly three years later, that officers did not commit any crimes in this incident.

“That officer faced not just the proverbial but also the very real ‘upraised knife’ and was forced to respond with force likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death to prevent the death of another. The evidence would firmly establish that, throughout their dealings with the man, the officers’ desire was to resolve this situation with no loss of life,” reads a report from the watchdog.

“It was only when the man attacked, placing the officer in the passenger seat immediately in critical danger, that the subject officer drew his service pistol and resorted to lethal force. In the circumstances, it was not only permissible but necessary to resort to lethal force to save the life of another, no matter how tragic the outcome.”