Man dead, Mountie hurt after highway shootout
LEDUC, Alta. — A man died and an RCMP officer was wounded after a shooting in central Alberta ended in a police chase and a shootout on a busy highway south of Edmonton.
RCMP said officers responded Wednesday morning to a firearms complaint at a home in the town of Blackfalds, near Red Deer.
Shots were fired from the home toward RCMP vehicles and a woman who was in the vicinity was hit and taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Mounties said a man fled in a car and headed north on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, the main thoroughfare between Calgary and Edmonton
Police said they used a tire-deflation device, there was a brief pursuit and the car crossed the median and drove the wrong way into traffic.
Chad Cammock was driving south on the highway when he saw several police vehicles following a black car.
“I noticed he’s on his rims — this has got to be a cop chase,” Cammock said.
When the black car came to a stop, police said there was a confrontation that led to the death of the 27-year-old driver and a serious injury to an officer.
Cammock said he saw several police vehicles surround the car and officers pull out their guns.
“I hear pop, pop, pop,” he said. “I thought, ‘holy smokes, they’re shooting.’ ”
Cammock said it happened quickly, and he started recording a video on his phone after the shooting stopped. “It literally happened in about five seconds,” he said. “There had to be 30 to 40 rounds.
“I don’t know how many [shots] were cops, because obviously that guy started shooting.”
Cammock said he saw police pull a man out of the car, and the officer looked wounded.
“The cop that pulled up and bumped into the car, you could tell he was injured,” Cammock said. “He was on his knees in that video and bent over. The cops were coming to him. He was hit.
“You could see by his cruiser, there was a little bit of blood pooled up there where he got shot.”
Photos from the scene showed what appear to be bullet holes in the windshield of one of the police vehicles. They also showed a black tarp covering a body nearby.
Cammock said the body was exactly where he saw police pull the man out of the car.
“There were five or six cops had him on the ground face down,” he said. “That’s him, for sure.”
Cammock said the wounded police officer got up and walk with others to another spot.
“He wasn’t injured to the point where he couldn’t walk,” he said.
Alberta’s police watchdog said it is investigating the officer-related shooting, but declined to provide further details.
Mounties said the injuries to the officer were not life-threatening, but they did not provide more information.