The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has announced that the investigation remains open, and no conclusion has been reached yet in the fatal shooting of a Beaver County man at a home near Tofield, Alberta, just before this past Christmas. The name of the deceased individual has not been made public.
On December 23, Mounties were attempting to serve warrants for a wanted man at the residence. When confronted by police, the man reportedly refused to cooperate and brandished a black handgun, which resulted in the responding officers reverting to a containment strategy. The on-scene RCMP then radioed for an explosive containment unit after the occupant of the house allegedly made statements indicating there was a bomb on site. RCMP notified neighboring residents for safety, and the Alberta RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) from Edmonton arrived at the residence to provide additional assistance.
An RCMP negotiator then made contact with the man but was unable to convince him to leave the residence peacefully. Various non-lethal techniques were used by ERT officers to remove the man from the property, but he remained in the residence. No details have been provided on the specific techniques used.
The handgun RCMP recovered on December 23 was the one the deceased male allegedly pointed at police when he was shot and killed.
The man exited the home carrying a double-bladed martial arts-style weapon along with a handgun, at which point two RCMP officers fired their sidearms, hitting the man an undisclosed number of times. Unfortunately, during the interaction, the man was fatally injured. Life-saving measures were immediately attempted but were unsuccessful, and he succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
No other members of the public or RCMP officers were injured.
The sword-like weapon was entered into evidence after being recovered from the deceased male.
Because it was an officer-involved shooting, ASIRT’s mandate is to independently and objectively investigate incidents involving Alberta’s police that have resulted in serious injury or death to any person, as well as serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.
No update was provided today regarding the investigation or the circumstances preventing ASIRT from reaching a conclusion on the events of December 23. We will monitor the case and keep our readers up to date when more information is available.
As part of its ongoing investigation, ASIRT is continuing efforts to identify people who may have witnessed aspects of the confrontation between the man and police. ASIRT is asking anyone who may have been in the area and may have witnessed these events and/or may have cell phone or dashcam video to contact investigators at 780-644-1483.
