ASIRT seeks information on fatal shooting

EDMONTON Alberta’s police watchdog is asking for more information about an Rcmp-involved shooting that left a 27-year-man dead on Wednesday.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) provided more details in a Friday news release about the shooting that took place on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway near Leduc. Video from an RCMP vehicle shows a black BMW sedan stopped on the highway with police cruisers surrounding it, the release said.

The man, who was the only one in the sedan, exited armed with a firearm and briefly exchanged gunfire with police, the release said. ASIRT said a “12-gauge, semi-automatic, tactical-style shotgun” was recovered following the shootout.

“The man sustained injuries and fell to the ground. An RCMP officer also sustained serious injuries,” the ASIRT release said.

The injured officer was transported to a hospital in Edmonton. He was admitted and treated and has since been released.

“Officers on scene provided emergency medical assistance to both the man and the injured officer but the man was pronounced dead on the scene. The injured officer was transported to a hospital in Edmonton. He was admitted and treated and has since been released.”

Mounties were initially seeking a man for a firearms complaint at a home in the Blackfalds neighbourhood of Rolling Hills when he opened fire from a home, ASIRT said.

A stray bullet hit a woman insider her home. Police say the 48-year-old woman is stable and recovering in hospital.

ASIRT said police did not fire their guns at this location.

The man then fled in a vehicle and travelled northbound on the QEII, ASIRT said. Officers at one point deployed a spike belt to deflate the tires before the vehicle crossed the median but it continued to travel north in the southbound lanes of traffic, ASIRT said.