Edmonton police cleared in fatal shooting of suspect pointing shotgun at officer

An Edmonton police officer who shot and killed a suspect pointing a shotgun at him has been cleared of any wrongdoing after the province’s police watchdog concluded the officer was defending himself.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigation into the April 15 shooting of the 36-year-old suspect relied heavily on CCTV security video, which captured the shooting and the moments leading up to it.

“A review of the footage, in conjunction with the EPS dispatch data, clearly indicates that the officers were lawfully placed and doing their duty to investigate a report of an armed man,” wrote ASIRT’s executive director in his final report.

Edmonton police officers were called to 97 Avenue and 163 Street – in west Edmonton – around 12:46 p.m. after receiving a report of a man who entered someone’s yard and pointed a long-barreled firearm at the homeowner.

Officers arrived in the area and located, in an alley, a man matching a description of the suspect. ASIRT says the man walked within 10 feet of the passenger’s side door of the police van, at which point he pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and pointed it at one of the officers.

The police watchdog says the officer exited his vehicle, and the suspect moved away, about 20 feet down the alley before turning back to the officer, “once again pointing the shotgun in his direction.”

That’s when the officer fired four times on the suspect, who was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries.

“There is no evidence to support any belief that (the officer) engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to an offence,” ASIRT’s report reads.