Edmonton police cleared in 2018 fatal shooting of man who fired at officer
Edmonton police have been cleared of any wrong-doing in the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old man who police said fired a rifle at an officer from inside a stolen vehicle in 2018.
"When the man ... failed to follow verbal commands to drop the gun and exit the vehicle and began to raise the firearm in the direction of an officer, he created a risk that was both potentially lethal and immediate," stated a report by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) released Friday.
"When he actually fired upon that officer, the man demonstrated not just a theoretical risk but an actual real, substantial and immediate threat to the officer's life."
The report found the officer who shot and killed the man was "lawfully justified in doing so." A loaded, sawed-off .30-30 calibre lever-action rifle with one spent cartridge inside the chamber was found inside the vehicle.
Started with a hit-and-run
Police first responded to a call of a hit-and-run accident on the Yellowhead Trail near 66th Street on Aug. 18, 2018, at around 9:30 p.m. Police determined the suspect vehicle had been stolen.
Two Edmonton police officers arrived at a small auto dealership in the area and tried to block in the vehicle, according the ASIRT report. The vehicle had "heavily tinted windows," which limited the officers' ability to see and it was unclear exactly how many people were inside, the report stated.
One officer approached the driver's side door while the other officer approached the passenger side door. While the man sitting on the passenger side exited the vehicle with his hands raised, the man on the driver's side stayed inside.
According to the report, the officer approaching the driver's side of the vehicle used a flashlight to peer inside and saw a long-barrelled firearm in the hands of the man sitting inside. The gun was pointed at the passenger side of the vehicle. The officer told the man to drop the weapon but he refused.
"The man (stated) he would not drop the gun, that officers would have to shoot him and that he would shoot police," the report stated.
When the man raised his gun, the officer fired his pistol, the report said. The man in the vehicle also fired one shot directed at the other officer, the report said
Paramedics were called to the scene and the man was declared dead.
ASIRT investigates
ASIRT found the officers were in "immediate and significant danger" and the officer who fired the weapon was justified to do so.
"The officers' use of lethal force, which he resorted to only after the man failed to comply with commands and escalated the situation by raising his gun, and, ultimately firing on police, was reasonable," stated the ASIRT report.
The man killed was wanted on a Canada-wide arrest warrant at the time. An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and a toxicology report found alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine and cannabis in his body at the time of his death.
ASIRT is a provincially-appointed body that investigates incidents where policy may have caused the serious injury or death of a civilian, and serious allegations of police misconduct.
