Police shoot armed man on street
Suspect appeared to be pointing gun at bystanders at intersection
A man critically injured by police after he allegedly brandished a rifle at a city intersection on Monday has been identified by family as Glenn (Occo) Ironchild, who has a long history with police.
Shortly before the 11:30 a.m. shooting, a post on Ironchild’s Facebook page said: “My phones gonna die but ima show something g you haven’t seen before .... Prepare.”
A three-minute video on his social media account, posted around the same time, shows Ironchild with a rifle and a bullet speaking into the camera, at times wiping tears from his eyes.
Police acting deputy chief Darren Derko said at least seven 911 calls were received about the man, who appeared to be pointing a firearm at bystanders at an intersection at 137 Avenue and 50 Street, and one caller reported they’d seen him loading a weapon.
Derko said that, when two officers arrived at the scene, they saw him pointing what appeared to be a firearm at people.
When the man saw the officers, Derko said he pointed the gun at them.
One of the officers opened fire. The man was taken by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital with gunshot wounds.
Jason McLachlan, 30, saw the drama unfold as he was driving north on 50 Street.
He stopped behind a city bus.
“The lights were green, but nobody was moving,” said McLachlan.
“People were stopping further back from the intersection.
“I saw a bunch of people around me pulling off dramatically.”
He then saw a man holding a rifle with a telescopic sight.
“He wasn’t looking down the sight at people,” McLachlan said, adding he pulled his car into a nearby parking lot and started recording what he saw.
“I noticed he was starting to look down the scope,” McLachlan said.
“I saw the police yelling at him. I could hear the police yelling ‘Drop the gun.’ ”
He said he heard two shots, followed by a pause. “And then there was a third shot and that’s when he slumped over.”
McLachlan said he was still shaky hours later: “It definitely got my adrenalin going.”
“There was a moment when he panned over in my direction ... It made me drop behind the car.”
Jonathan Foss, 30, was driving east on 137 Avenue when he approached the intersection.
“I noticed a guy walking across the street and I saw him carrying a case,” said Foss.
“He starts dancing around,” Foss said, describing it as a “crazy kind of dancing, like he was ready to do something ... It was straight out of a movie scene.”
Within a minute, the man opened up the case and pulled out a rifle in a “fluid motion,” Foss said, adding drivers were avoiding the man.
“People didn’t take the time to stop,” he said. “He stood in front of one vehicle; they managed to get around him.
“He’s in the middle of the intersection. I hear three shots go off,” Foss said, adding he believes the shots came from police.
“I heard ‘pop, pop, pop.’ ” Foss said he called 911 after seeing the rifle case. “Just the shape … I knew it wasn’t a guitar,” he said, adding he drove into a nearby PetSmart parking lot.
“Police responded extremely quickly.”
He felt shocked by the whole scene.
“I don’t expect to see this stuff, especially in our city,” he said.
Six potential witnesses were brought into the nearby Tim Hortons at 13704 50 St., said manager Mike Manala.
An AHS spokesman confirmed the man was in hospital later Monday in critical condition.
The province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, was en route to the scene just before 1 p.m. to take over the investigation.
Derko said the officer who fired his weapon had completed his firearms qualifications in June 2016 and was also a police training officer. He was a 10-year veteran of the force.
His male partner, who did not fire his gun, was a 61/2-month recruit.
Both officers were placed on mandatory leave.
“This incident could have been much worse and we are grateful no bystanders were injured,” Derko said.
Ironchild’s history with Edmonton police includes a 2008 case where he pulled a knife on a store clerk and later put it to his own throat before an officer stunned him with a Taser.
Ironchild was charged with assault with a weapon and possession of an offensive weapon.
Aggravated assault and robbery charges against Ironchild and another man accused of being part of a group of six who viciously attacked another group of teens, lured to a basement suite for a party in 2002, were eventually stayed.
The police shooting Monday comes after Vitaly Savin, 55, was killed by an officer at a traffic stop Thursday afternoon in southwest Edmonton.
In that case, the officer responding to two calls from the public of a suspected impaired driver pulled over a silver minivan around 1:43 p.m. near Hollands Landing. Police said both the officer and a 55-yearold driver exited their vehicles. Investigators later seized a large hunting knife from the scene.
Edmonton resident Aman Jaggi witnessed the aftermath and saw the officer who killed Savin performing CPR on the man.
He told the Edmonton Journal the officer had been moving backwards when he slipped on ice, then fired his gun.
The officer, a six-year member recruited from the United Kingdom, has been placed on administrative leave, in accordance with police protocol.
ASIRT continues to investigate that death. City police on Monday confirmed Savin is Edmonton’s 10th homicide of the year.
In a recent city police-involved shooting death, ASIRT cleared officers of any wrongdoing on Nov. 25, 2016, for shooting death of a 50-year-old man who had four times the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration and who was advancing toward officers with what appeared to be a rifle on Dec. 27, 2015.
This incident could have been much worse and we are grateful no bystanders were injured.