Shootout in northern Alberta leads to two dozen criminal charges
A strange series of events last week that began with trespassing and led to a wild shootout on a rural property near Spirit River has resulted in more than two dozen charges against a 25-year-old man, RCMP say.
The man is now in custody and was scheduled to appear Monday in Grande Prairie provincial court, Spirit River RCMP say.
"This was a dynamic situation where the suspect's actions posed an imminent threat to rural residents," Sgt. Ryan Frost, commander of the Spirit River RCMP detachment, said in a news release Monday.
"With the support of area residents and the collaboration of responding RCMP members, we were able to bring the incident to a quick resolution, where thankfully no one was injured."
It all started at about 3 p.m. Friday when a man called RCMP to say he had spotted someone trespassing on a neighbour's property south of town.
When confronted, the man drove off in a vehicle. The complainant dialled 911 then followed in his own vehicle.
The suspect stopped on the road soon afterward and fired several rounds from a handgun that hit the complainant's vehicle, police said.
Shootout on rural property
The suspect then drove south and later followed another vehicle into the yard of a second rural residence. There, the suspect pointed his handgun at the male driver and demanded he hand over his vehicle.
With her four-year-old daughter in the back seat, the female passenger snatched the keys from the ignition and ran into the house, police said.
The suspect followed her inside and fired another round from his handgun that missed the woman and hit a wall. He demanded she hand over the keys.
She did as he asked, then called 911 to give police an update.
The vehicle's driver, meanwhile, had entered the house and got a long gun. He went back outside to confront the suspect, who was transferring stolen property from one vehicle to another. The man told the suspect to surrender and drop his gun.
The two men fired several gunshots at each other. All of them missed.
The suspect ran off but was arrested at about 4:15 p.m. with help from an RCMP dog unit.
The man now faces 25 criminal charges, including break and enter, armed robbery, three counts of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life, two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and possession of a firearm obtained by crime.
Spirit River is about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
