Calgary cop avoids charges despite watchdog’s report
CALGARY • The Calgary Police Service officer who shot and killed a man in a hotel room in the city’s northeast almost a year and a half ago will not be charged with a criminal offence — despite a police watchdog report that recommended he face charges.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) found “there was available evidence capable of constituting reasonable grounds to believe that an offence (s) under the Criminal Code had been committed” by the officer who shot Anthony Heffernan three times in the head, once in the chest and put a fifth round through the window of the hotel room.
But the police watchdog said Monday the Crown determined “there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction and the recommendation was that no charges be laid against the subject officer.”
The man’s father, Pat Heffernan says his son’s needless death shows people are at risk when they come into contact with police.
Heffernan, who was 27 and a recovering drug addict, was shot four times — twice in the head — in his room at a Super 8 hotel near the city’s airport.
His mother, Irene Heffernan, says she had hoped “clear and just thinking would prevail, but it didn’t.”
“It’s a sad day for all Albertans and Canadians alike,” Pat Heffernan said Monday.
“There is no justice in this case. Anthony is dead and anyone else who comes into contact with police is at tremendous risk ... because they are going to be supporting each other in whatever needs to be said.”
The family have long been outspoken about the injustice they feel was done when the 27-year-old was killed.
A relapse into drug addiction put an otherwise successful, loving and loved young man in that hotel room.
Pat Heffernan said his son “was a danger to nobody but himself” that day in April 2015.
The family has also said investigators told them Anthony Heffernan missed his checkout time and when hotel staff went to check on him the state they discovered him in prompted the call to police.
Five officers arrived with the intention of a welfare check and attempted to communicate with Heffernan through the latched door for a time before going into the hotel room.
After kicking in the door, 72 seconds elapsed from the point police were in the room to the point the second Taser and shots were fired.
The man seemed agitated and in medical distress, police have said. When officers went into the room, he held his hands up with a small insulin syringe in one and a lighter in the other, but didn’t comply with orders.
Heffernan was hit with a Taser, at which point police said he made motions toward them.
When a second attempt with the Taser failed to stop him one officer decided to fire on him.
“Mr. Heffernan was shot four times, with two bullets striking his head, one striking his neck and one striking his upper torso. Two bullet wounds were penetrating, which resulted in the bullets being recovered from his skull and chest area respectively,” the report said.
A year after the shooting, Heffernan’s family said ASIRT’s investigation had finished and the file had been sent to the Crown with the recommendation for charges.
“(Monday’s) finding in no way diminishes the sad fact that a family has lost their loved one. On behalf of ASIRT, the executive director extends condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Heffernan in relation to this tragic event,” ASIRT said Monday.
The officer who shot and killed Heffernan returned to duty after clearing a psychological assessment and was later involved in another deadly shooting in Huntington Hills on Jan. 25.