Calgary police shooting raises questions about de-escalation

Calgary’s police chief is still on the defensive after an officer-involved fatal shooting over the weekend.

More questions were raised about police de-escalation tactics at the Calgary Police Commission meeting Wednesday afternoon, with some wondering why officers don’t have more non-lethal options at their disposal.

CPS Chief Mark Neufeld says the type of tactics used by officers will usually depend on what they know at the time of the incident.

“You can bring all these things to bear in situations that are stable. Once they’re stabilized, then there’s lots of time and space to do this. And a lot of the barriers that are created by weapons, as an example, those go away. So initially, when you’re in the stabilization mode, it is very difficult and all of it depends, also, on people being able to communicate and how fast things escalate or deescalate, or how long they go on,” he said.

Related article: Calgary man zapped, hit with projectiles before fatally shot by police: watchdog

Police say 41-year-old Latjor Tuel was tasered and hit with less-lethal projectiles from a launcher on Saturday in Calgary’s southeast before the two officers shot and killed him. At the time, CPS claimed the man was holding a weapon and that he had attacked a police dog.

When asked again about the matter Wednesday, Neufeld explained police use a combination of tactics when assessing a situation. That includes communication to isolate and contain the person.

“That’s what officers responding to a situation like that would be thinking about in every case and again the knife would be a huge barrier to communication and so will the location,” said Neufeld.

Family and friends have condemn police actions, claiming the shooting was provoked by the officers as excessive use of force.

Tuel was mentally distressed at the time of the shooting, his loved ones go on to say, with many drawing attention to systemic racism.

On Tuesday, Neufeld told reporters “the call the police responded to was not one reported about mental health.”

Please see the following statement from Chief Constable Mark Neufeld in response to the recent officer-involved shooting in the community of Forest Lawn. #yychttps://t.co/1wNBZLBZQN

— Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) February 23, 2022

The police chief said at the time that the information provided to officers was that “a person armed with weapons” had “committed an assault.”