Cleared in fatal shooting
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has concluded a fatal shooting at a First Nations community northwest of Edmonton in 2013 was lawful and reasonable, and that no action should be taken against the officer involved.
The name of the man who was killed hasn’t been made public. He’s described throughout a public statement on the shooting as “the Affected Person.”
The shooting happened on the Cold Lake First Nation on Aug. 15, 2013, as RCMP attempted to arrest a man who had evaded them for more than a year. The suspect had reportedly told family members he would die before going back to prison.
“Despite the best efforts of the Affected Person’s family, the Affected Person remained resolute that he would not be taken into custody alive,” says the statement about ASIRT’s concluded investigation into the case.
ASIRT said police had been looking to arrest the man for “serious personal injury offences,” which was previously described by ASIRT as a sexual assault investigation.
The RCMP first tried to locate the man in late 2011 but were told he’d fled into the bush, “intending to live off the land.”
The report notes the man had a “significant related criminal history” and was facing the possibility of a long prison term, including possible indefinite incarceration as a dangerous offender.
RCMP found the man in June 2012 inside a tarp shelter in the forest, but officers left after he grabbed “a long and slender object the officer believed to possibly be a rifle or an axe,” ASIRT says.
Officers returned to the area days later but the man fled.
ASIRT said the man “had made it clear that he wouldn’t allow himself to be arrested.”
The RCMP tried to get the man’s family to persuade him to turn himself in, ASIRT said.
Instead, upon hearing police had been at a relative’s home on the morning of Aug. 15, the man reportedly said he was going to die that day.
He was shot after officers entered the home to arrest him. ASIRT says he produced a large knife, “held it up and out,” and refused to drop it when ordered.
The ASIRT statement concludes “the force used was reasonable in light of the circumstances presented.”