A shooting took place at the RCMP detachment in Sherwood Park, directly east of Edmonton, on Monday morning.
RCMP said the police shooting at the Strathcona County detachment happened around 10:30 a.m., when there were between 40 and 50 staff on site — a mix of civilians and RCMP officers.
Detachment commander Supt. Barry Larocque said a man with what appeared to be a gun was in their gated, locked parking lot on the backside of the building, where police cruisers and other RCMP vehicles are secured.
“The detachment went into an immediate lockdown so that the civilian employees within the detachment were safe. Members then engaged with this individual. An incident happened where members fired upon the individual and striking him,” Larocque said.
At least one officer fired their gun and hit the suspect.
Right afterwards, he said officers then moved in to provide first aid until an ambulance showed up and took the suspect to hospital, where Larocque said they continued to be treated. Police did not say how badly injured the alleged gunman was.
Afterwards, staff from the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) showed up to begin their investigation.
Because ASIRT is involved, Larocque was limited in what he could share on Monday afternoon. He couldn’t say what might have motivated the man, but did say it’s believed the suspect was armed.
“The article believed to be a firearm was left at the scene,” Larocque said.
Police tape was seen surrounding some vehicles inside the detachment’s gated parking lot, while operations inside were shut down for the remainder of the day.
Larocque apologized for the inconvenience the closure may have had on members of the public who had police business to attend to, but he said his staff’s well-being comes first.
“This is our home away from home. It unnerved our employees, it unnerved our members,” Larocque said. “Being mindful of our employees and what they went through today, I made the decision to shut down. We will be open again tomorrow and we will forge on.”
While aggression towards cops is increasing, according to Larocque, who said there’s approximately 2.2 incidents of violence towards police every day, it almost never happens on their own doorstep.
“In my almost 33 years, I’ve heard of one other incident at a detachment but never, ever like this. So I would suggest it is rare,” he said.
“We’re just glad that this incident kind of resolved the way that it did.”
The detachment’s new emotional support dog, Mickey, was brought in to do what he does best — give love, cuddles and distractions for employees who were rattled by the shooting in their own workplace.
“The support continued throughout the day. It will continue here into the incoming days because it’s not really that first day sometimes when things start hitting,” Larocque said of PTSD.
“What I urged our people to do was hang out together, talk, get it out of their chest and just feel comfortable with it as best they could.”
Larocque said in addition to ASIRT’s investigation into the officer’s actions that led to a person being injured, the RCMP will conduct an internal review of how a suspect got into the secure area. .
“We have gates on our parking lot and so we’re looking at video cameras to try and determine that,” he said.
“This investigation is now being taken over by ASIRT so that’ll be part of their investigation, but a corresponding investigation that we’re doing from the detachment — there’ll be reviews done to all those questions about how he got into our parking lot.”
RCMP said there was no ongoing risk to the public after the shooting, and no officers were hurt.