Alberta’s police watchdog has ruled that two members of the Edmonton Police Service who shot and killed a man in 2020 while responding to a gun complaint were justified in their actions. EPS received multiple complaints on Sept. 18, 2020, about a man armed with a loaded shotgun in the backyard of a home in north Edmonton. Another caller reported the man was in an alley near the Eastglen Motor Inn. Two EPS officers went to the home first. When they arrived at the backyard, they saw a man matching the caller’s description sitting in a lawn chair and holding a shotgun across his lap. Both officers told the man to drop the gun and show his hands, but he did not comply and instead began to raise the firearm in their direction, according to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT).
“At that point, both subject officers discharged their respective firearms, hitting the (man),” ASIRT executive director Michael Ewenson said in a decision released Thursday. “The officers noted the (man) was no longer moving and EMS was called, but it was clear that (the man) was deceased from being shot.” After interviewing several witnesses, including the man’s sister, cousin and neighbours, Ewenson said the officers were “lawfully placed and acting properly in the execution of their duties.”
“The force used was proportionate, necessary and reasonable in all the circumstances,” he wrote in his decision. “As a result, there are no grounds to believe that an offence was committed.” Ewenson said a police officer is justified in using as much force as necessary if they have reasonable grounds to do so. Any force intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm is justified, he said, if the officer believes it was necessary to prevent the death or grievous bodily harm of the officer or other people.
Investigators spoke to one of the man’s sisters, who said she observed her brother consuming alcohol inside the home, claiming he had been self-medicating with alcohol since his wife’s suicide the month before. She said the man told her about wanting to die by suicide in the past.
