Police cleared in shooting of Windsor man

CALGARY The fatal shooting of an emotionally disturbed gunman by Calgary police during a 2016 armed standoff was justified and reasonable, Alberta’s police watchdog said Thursday.

This comes at the conclusion of an Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigation into the Jan. 24, 2016, shooting death of 53-year-old David McQueen, originally from Windsor.

ASIRT executive director Susan Hughson said it was one of the more harrowing inquiries ever carried out by her office.

“Without the actions taken by CPS, combined with sheer good luck, the potential for a civilian or police officer to be seriously injured or killed would have been extremely high,” she said at a Thursday morning news conference.

It was a little before 5 p.m. that day when police received reports of gunshots at McQueen’s home on 78th Avenue N.W., in Huntington Hills.

Bullets whizzed by the heads of officers attempting to contain the scene, slamming into neighbouring homes.

A nearby Calgary Transit bus was also struck, the bullet coming within centimetres of the driver.

McQueen continued to fire out both the front and rear of his home for the next 90 minutes, firing at least 30 shots from a handgun ASIRT said he wasn’t legally allowed to possess.

The standoff came to an end when the CPS tactical unit launched tear gas canisters into the home in response to a fresh volley of gunfire from inside.

Hughson said this forced McQueen to emerge from the home and open fire on police.

Requiring the use of a wheelchair after a 1994 diving mishap at Sikome Lake, reports described McQueen as a man struggling with mounting health issues, compounded by depression and increasing frustrations with the government and health-care system.