Calgary officer to stand trial for murder after two die in slow-speed police chase
Posted Aug 19, 2026 1:00 pm.
Last Updated Aug 19, 2026 4:41 pm.
A Calgary police officer charged with two counts of second-degree murder is going to trial.
A judge ordered the trial for Const. Craig Stothard on Tuesday at the end of a preliminary inquiry.
Such inquiries are held to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a trial.
Stothard was charged after the occupants of a van were shot dead after a slow-speed pursuit on May 29, 2023.
Stothard, who is 52, is on leave from the police service.
Police were called to a report of suspicious persons on private property.
When they arrived, the suspects fled in a stolen cube van.
Video of the chase showed the van being followed by a number of police vehicles at a crawling pace, and police said at the time that “rapidly changing dynamics” led one officer to shoot the occupants of the van.
The two victims were identified as Wesley Davidson and Levon Boyce Fox.
