2 Alberta Mounties charged

EDMONTON — Two RCMP officers have been charged in the shooting death of a 31-year-old man in northern Alberta.

Cpl. Randy Stenger and Const. Jessica Brown of the Whitecourt RCMP detachment each face one count of criminal negligence causing death.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says Clayton Crawford died from multiple gunshot wounds inside a car after a confrontation with police on July 3, 2018.

The police watchdog says RCMP officers had been investigating another shooting the day before at a home in Valhalla Centre, Alta., about 65 kilometres northwest of Grande Prairie.

It says officers were looking for a witness or possible victim in that case, when they discovered a man sleeping in the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked at a rest stop near Whitecourt.

ASIRT says that during the confrontation, the vehicle was “put into motion” and one officer fired a service pistol while the other discharged a carbine rifle.

“The vehicle left the rest stop, crossed the highway and entered a ditch a short distance away,” said a news release.

ASIRT executive director,Susan Hughson told a news conference Monday that Crown prosecutors were consulted for their opinion and her team recently determined charges were warranted.

She said both officers have been released on an undertaking with court conditions, including a prohibition on possessing firearms. They are to appear in Whitecourt provincial court July 14.