Shots fired by officer at end of police chase
Alberta Serious Incident Response Team called in, driver facing multiple charges
Jenna Griffin had just pulled onto southbound Macleod Trail on Friday night when she saw a stolen truck barrelling straight for her.
Inside the stolen Ford F-150, police said, a man and woman in their 20s were on a dangerous hour-long flight from police, which culminated in shots being fired by a Calgary officer.
“I turned left onto Macleod Trail and shortly after ... there was a pickup truck that came off the sidewalk onto the road,” said Griffin, who added she saw only about a minute of the action.
“I was in the middle lane and it drove by me. At that point, I couldn’t see into the truck because the passenger airbag was deployed on the right side. I saw a police vehicle pull behind it and stop. At that point, the officer on the passenger side got out and pointed his gun in the direction the truck had gone.”
Griffin said she kept driving before numerous other police vehicles came northbound in the southbound lanes.
“I saw a good number of other unmarked police cars coming after the fact,” she said.
“That was one of the crazier things I’ve seen. To be honest, the car coming right at me off the sidewalk was the scarier part compared to the police coming after. I was just happy (police) were already on the scene. It was shocking for a moment, for sure.”
The police HAWCS helicopter and members of the tactical team initially began tracking the truck after it was spotted on Edmonton Trail and later driving into oncoming traffic and mounting sidewalks.
Around 5 p.m., police ended the chase, which they said was becoming a serious risk to the public. In a news release Friday night, police said “the vehicle’s driving pattern presented significant risk to public safety.”
After the car was boxed in just outside Ranchman’s on Macleod Trail, south of 90th Avenue S.E., a police tactical team member opened fire but didn’t strike anyone. The incident is now under investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.
A man in the stolen vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries while a female refused medical treatment, police said. Neither was injured by the shots and both were taken into custody.
Howard Burns, executive director of the Alberta Federation of Police Associations, compared the chase and subsequent arrest to something usually seen on TV.
“The fact they made the decision to box in that vehicle on the roadway they did, at the time of day they did, tells me that there would’ve been a significant public safety risk and they had to act before someone got hurt or killed — that’s something you would expect to see on TV, not in real life along Macleod Trail,” Burns said.
Friday night’s officer-involved shooting was the sixth of 2018. Three of the six have been fatal.
A spate of 10 police shootings in 2016, five of them fatal, prompted police Chief Roger Chaffin to enlist retired Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Neil Wittmann to review the department’s use-of-force procedures. In May, Wittmann released a 400-page report offering 65 recommendations for the service to better deal with potentially dangerous situations.
Burns said in some circumstances, police have no choice but to look for ways to end dangerous situations.
“It’s all about public safety. Police have to make decisions on the fly — sometimes in seconds. They do the best they can, they’re trained to do that and more often than not it works out OK and nobody is hurt,” said Burns, formerly the head of Calgary ’s police union.
“Incidents like this latest one are concerning to police officers and they seem to be happening much more frequently. When you push the envelope time and time again, it’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed.”
Christopher Dwight Leaming, 23, faces a raft of charges, including possession of stolen property, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, flight from police and a number of drug and firearms-related offences.
Leaming is to appear in court Thursday.