Alberta’s police watchdog has cleared the officers who shot a man 18 times four years ago after he reportedly slashed tires at a south Edmonton hotel.
The shooting happened on July 27, 2021, near the Ramada by Wyndham Edmonton South, located near 53 Avenue between Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, or ASIRT, said it was reasonable for officers involved with the shooting to believe the suspect was a risk to their lives.
Acting executive director Matthew Block said their use of force was proportionate and necessary and ruled that there are no reasonable grounds to believe they committed an offence.
Police were called to the Ramada hotel parking lot around 9:30 p.m. after guests reported seeing a man,armed with what turned out to be an airsoft pistol, shooting and slashing tires.
ASIRT spoke with a hotel guest who said they witnessed a man wandering in the parking lot, acting strangely.
“He was talking to himself or someone who was not there, seemed ‘jittery’ and had one of his hands in his pocket that ‘looked full’ but she could not see what was in it. They waited in the car until (the man) had walked far enough away before entering the hotel,” ASIRT’s final report into the death said.
While police were responding, they were told by hotel staff \the man had left the parking lot on foot and walked east across Gateway Boulevard, in the general direction of the Domo gas bar on the other side of the four-lane major roadway.
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At approximately 9:46 p.m., ASIRT said officers encountered a man matching the initial description. He was walking against the flow of traffic, south in the middle lanes of Gateway Boulevard towards responding tactical vehicles.
What occurred next was captured on Air 1 video, ASIRT said in its initial report shortly after the man’s death.
As some of the tactical officers exited their vehicles, the man turned and ran back north, away from police. The officers followed him on foot.
He was observed to be carrying a dark object in his right hand, ASIRT said.
Near Gateway Boulevard and 56 Avenue, officers told ASIRT they demanded he drop the gun and, after a brief chase, three officers fired their carbines. The man was hit 18 times in the head, neck, torso and extremities.
The black object the man was carrying was dropped when he was shot.
An imitation Glock 17 Austria air pistol with a flashlight attachment mounted underneath that was recovered at the scene of a fatal shooting involving police in south Edmonton on July 27, 2021.
ASIRT
It was later recovered and determined to be an imitation Glock 17 Austria air pistol with a a flashlight attachment mounted underneath, which typically shoots pellets or metal BBs.
Testing confirmed the air pistol did not meet the minimum standards for a firearm classification. An air pistol magazine and a Fireball whiskey bottle were found discarded on Gateway Boulevard.
Boxes of CO2 cylinders and ammunition were found alongside the man in the ambulance.
Toxicology results determined the man, who was in his 40s, had methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis in his system.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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