ASIRT won’t release identity of gunman who shot officer
Watchdog’s decision called ‘hypocritical’ by head of the city’s police association
Alberta’s police watchdog will not be releasing the identity of the gunman who opened fire on Calgary police last month, a decision that has infuriated the head of the Calgary Police Association.
On Friday, a spokesperson for ASIRT, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, said the decision to withhold the gunman’s identity falls within their homicide naming protocol, pointing toward a joint agreement signed by five provincial civilian police oversight agencies.
On the morning of March 27, police were hot on the heels of a suspect connected to a number of carjacking and armed robbery attempts in the northeast Calgary neighbourhood of Abbeydale.
Uniformed patrol officers were investigating reports of a break-in in the 100 block of Abingdon Way N.E. when they heard the sound of glass breaking and noted flames coming from a nearby garage.
As they approached the garage on foot, shots rang out, striking Const. Jordan Forget, a five-year member of the Calgary police.
Forget was rushed to hospital in serious condition and released a week later. He continues his recovery at home.
The gunman’s charred body was found later that day in the burnedout garage. His cause of death has not yet been released.
Justification for ASIRT’s position comes from a 2015 joint statement signed by civilian police oversight agencies in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C., explaining the decision to not release names is to minimize the pain felt by family members of the deceased.
“Knowing the injured or deceased person by name, instead of as ‘the affected party ’ or ‘complainant,’ adds nothing of additional relevance,” the statement reads. “It does, however, add greatly to the public exposure that will be imposed on the injured person or the family of a deceased. We would argue that the right to privacy of the individuals concerned far outweighs what the public will gain by knowing the name.”
While the circumstances surrounding the gunman’s death have yet to be officially confirmed, law enforcement officials from across the province have wrestled with balancing privacy with public interest in the naming of homicide victims.
At an August 2017 meeting in Calgary, Alberta’s police chiefs adopted a policy framework outlining how and when names of homicide victims are released to the public — an effort spearheaded by Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley to standardize such policies across the province.
While the Calgary Police Service routinely releases victim’s names, police in Edmonton have been criticized for their insistence on keeping secret the identities of that city’s murder victims.
Out of the 42 homicides investigated by Edmonton police in 2017, names were released in only 25 of the cases.
Calgary police, in contrast, released victims’ names in all 27 of last year’s homicides in the city.
Provincially, only eight names were withheld in the 46 homicides investigated by Alberta RCMP in 2017.
The issue came to a head during Postmedia’s year-end interview with Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht, who let slip a previously unreported homicide in 2017 — one officials have yet to provide any details on where, when or how it took place.
As for ASIRT’s decision to withhold the identity of the Abbeydale gunman, Calgary police union president Les Kaminski expressed anger at the position, saying the questions surrounding the situation should take precedence over supposed impositions of privacy.
“Why is ASIRT protecting this individual? There are questions that need to be asked and answered,” he said.
“He is not a victim — he’s a suspect for a carjacking, robbery and the attempted murder of a police officer.”
Kaminski said keeping the gunman’s identity secret goes against ASIRT’s mandate of transparency in the investigations of police-involved incidents.
“There is obviously massive public interest in a person who would so blatantly jeopardize public safety with such a wanton display of violence in a residential neighbourhood in our city,” he said.
“Where is the transparency? ASIRT’s reluctance to release his identity is hypocritical.”