Shooting sends Calgary police officer to hospital, man dead: ASIRT
Posted Oct 31, 2022 5:26 pm.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is looking into a shooting that left a man dead and a police officer in hospital on Friday.
It started when police were called to a building on Canyon Meadows Drive SW, just west of Macleod Trail at 2:45 a.m. for reports of a suspicious vehicle “blaring loud music and behaving erratically” in the parking lot.
ASIRT says the officer turned on his body cam and approached the vehicle and the man inside.
After the officer turned away, a single shot came from the vehicle. Calgary police have said the officer was shot in the leg.
The police watchdog says the police officer moved to his vehicle and shot at the man with his gun.
After a series of gunshots were exchanged, the man exited his vehicle and fled on foot.
ASIRT says more police officers showed up, along with a helicopter, which found the man in Fish Creek Park.
The helicopter was monitoring the man when it reported he “appeared to discharge a firearm.” ASIRT says no one was near the man at the time.
Police found the man dead at 3:26 a.m. A shotgun was also found.
A photo of a shotgun found underneath a man in Calgary on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. (ASIRT photo)
ASIRT is investigating the use of force by police, and say no additional information will be released.
On Friday, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld told reporters that the officer involved was released from hospital.
“When you talk about circumstances like this, the situation could have ended very differently,” Neufeld said.
“I am happy to say he will do very well, but this could have been a much, much different day.”
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This comes as police officer violence has been reported around the country.
Recently, RCMP officer Shaelyn Yang was stabbed to death in Burnaby, B.C., while on duty asking a person living in a tent to leave.
Four officers were also killed over the span of two months in Ontario.
The Calgary police chief says there isn’t one clear answer to why this is happening, but he is thankful it is a rare occurrence.
“It’s fortunate that they’re not all happening in any particular city. But the downside of that is until somebody has the information about all of them, it’s hard to pick out trends and issues that might be driving them,” Neufeld said.
-With files from Tiffany Goodwein and Joey Chini
