Father of police shooting victim calls son’s death ‘murder’

CALGARY There are no winners in the death of Anthony Heffernan at the hands of a police officer, Calgary’s police union boss says — including the officer himself who’s been through “17 months of hell.”

A family lost a son and a brother, and waited 17 months for an ultimately disappointing result for them, and Howard Burns said his officer has spent that time waiting to be told whether he did the right thing.

Burns stands by the officer, who is still under investigation for a second deadly shooting.

“You have to appreciate there’s one person that started this entire chain of events and there’s one person that could have stopped this entire chain of events and he didn’t, and as a result he’s now deceased,” he said.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team suggested charges were warranted but the Crown declined, saying there was little likelihood of conviction. Burns said that was the right call.

Still reeling Monday from the announcement no charges would be laid, Heffernan’s father, Patrick Heffernan, called the incident a “murder” that was being swept under the rug.

“I understand the frustration of the family, but they wanted retribution,” Burns said.

“The person that was killed in that room was their son, their brother — I get that, (but) the person that they knew (is not) the person police confronted. “To say it’s murder is ridiculous.” Heffernan died March 16, 2015, in a northeast Calgary hotel room, hit with multiple Tasers and shot four times while in the midst of a drug relapse, after attempts to communicate with him failed.

Burns said he has concerns about how ASIRT conducted its investigation, questioning why it took 17 months for a result to come out and whether it was truly independent.

A year after Heffernan died, family said the file was with the Crown with a recommendation for charges — it took several more months to come out, but it turned out true.

“If this is an independent investigation, why is it that one side of this equation is getting special treatment or getting information that the other side isn’t privy to?” Burns said.

Meanwhile, the officer responsible for Heffernan’s death is also among multiple officers being investigated in another fatality — the shooting death of Dave McQueen, who police said was firing indiscriminately from his Huntington Hills home in January 2016.

The officer was put back on frontline duty after clearing psychological assessment.

“That second scenario certainly wasn’t of the officer’s making,” Burns said.

“We have got a guy shooting indiscriminately in the community. What do you do? You can’t say, ‘I can’t go because I’ve already been involved in a shooting.’ ”

Burns said most officers go through their careers without ever having to use deadly force, much less twice in short order — he said this officer was “unlucky.”

Police Chief Roger Chaffin said it’s a rare occurrence, but it happens.

“It’s the nature of this work that it could happen to you — and it could happen more than once,” he said.

The officer is back again after clearing a second psychological evaluation, in an administrative role this time.

Heffernan’s mom, Irene Heffernan, confirmed the family is still considering other legal action.