Four-and-a-half years after officers fired 33 shots at a man in stolen truck in central Edmonton and kicked him during the arrest, the investigation into their conduct has concluded and Alberta’s police watchdog is not recommending charges.
The incident happened the morning of April 30, 2019, when Edmonton Police Service officers responded to a report of a stolen Dodge Ram 5500 being tracked by GPS near 106th Street and 107th Avenue.
Police located the flatbed pickup truck, which was stopped around 100th Street near 105th Avenue in Chinatown. A man was on the passenger side of the cab.
The officers parked their police vehicles behind and in front of the stolen flatbed truck to block it in, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team said.
Officers “issued verbal commands,” telling the man to get out of the vehicle, but he didn’t obey and instead slid over to the driver’s seat and put the truck into reverse, ASIRT said.
ASIRT said the officers used reasonable force in shooting at the man as he used the large truck to ram two different police SUVs — pushing one of the cruisers 10 metres.
In total, the three officers fired 33 rounds as the driver rammed back and forth, the agency reported.
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The man eventually dropped over onto the seat of the truck, ASIRT said, and the officers approached the vehicle.
The vehicle was put into park but the man did not open the door when asked, ASIRT said. Police broke a window to open the door and an officer pulled the suspect out and onto the ground. He was handcuffed.
ASIRT investigators interviewed four civilians who were near the incident.
In an interview with investigators, the then-18-year-old man admitted to having just used methamphetamine before getting behind the wheel.
The man said before the incident, a friend had picked him up in the truck. They had parked and his friend had left him in the vehicle, in the passenger seat.
He was shot in the shoulder and required surgery to repair a broken arm.
ASIRT found police were justified in firing at the man, but two witnesses also reported seeing an officer kick the man in the head afterwards, when he was on the ground being arrested.
“They grabbed him, threw him to the ground, and then hit his head, kicked his sides, and stomped on his head,” the ASIRT report said of the man’s account of what happened.
“He heard them laughing. He was handcuffed. Later, he was taken in an ambulance to hospital.”
ASIRT said the use of force in shooting at the suspect was reasonable because the ramming flatbed truck could have killed or seriously harmed both the officers and people around them. It was a sudden change of events from a stolen vehicle investigation.
“This incident was sudden and caught the subject officers by surprise. They were immediately in a very serious situation that threatened their lives and potentially the lives of others around them. It was necessary that they act immediately to stop this threat,” ASIRT said in its final report.
“This was not a situation where the officers went in knowing that a serious threat was likely and then forced their own response.”
However ASIRT was critical of the kick.
The officers said the man was resisting arrest but ASIRT found there is no evidence to indicate it was a justifiable use of force.
“The head is a vulnerable area and kicks to it are rarely justifiable. The sequence of events may indicate that the kick was retaliation for what the (arrested person) had just done.”
However, it was unclear which officer did the kicking, so no charges are being recommended.
“Unfortunately, there is also no evidence about which of the subject officers kicked the (man) in the head. Without such evidence, there are not reasonable grounds to believe any one officer committed an offence in relation to the kick,” the police watchdog said.
ASIRT is called in any time Alberta police action results in serious injury or death. It also investigates serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.