Suspect drove toward officer prior to shooting, police watchdog says

Alberta’s police watchdog says police dash camera footage of a shooting involving a Red Deer Mountie Monday shows the suspect drove a vehicle toward him before he fired his weapon.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating a police-involved shooting early Monday in Red Deer that ended with a woman suffering “an evident penetrating injury to her left leg,” the agency said in a Tuesday news release.

ASIRT said the officer found a white Ford Edge parked and backed into a driveway in a residential area near 51 Avenue and 33 Street around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

“The available evidence to date, including the police vehicle’s Watchguard video, indicates the officer exited his marked police vehicle and proceeded on foot toward the suspect vehicle,” ASIRT stated in the news release. Postmedia has not seen the video.

“As he approached the front of the vehicle, a 22-year-old female driver drove at the officer, who fired his service weapon as he moved out of the way. The driver fled the scene in the suspect vehicle and was not immediately apprehended.”

Police found the Ford Edge abandoned around 7 a.m. in the Eastview community with an altered licence plate, ASIRT said.

The injured woman was found at a home shortly after 11 a.m. and sent to hospital. She has been discharged and is in custody.

ASIRT is investigating the circumstances leading up to the shooting and the officer’s conduct. RCMP will continue investigating the conduct of the female driver.

ASIRT is asking anyone who was in the area of 33 Street and 50 Avenue in Red Deer Monday around 2:30 a.m. and saw the confrontation to reach out.