Six years after a Mountie shot a suspect in the face, charges against the now-retired RCMP officer have been laid.
The incident happened west of Red Deer on the morning of April 6, 2019, when a lone Mountie was sent to investigate reports of a stolen oilfield battery.
While checking vehicles parked behind a business strip in Eckville, an officer found a man sleeping in a Ford F-250 pickup truck that had been stolen from Saskatoon almost one week prior.
At the time, RCMP said the officer could not confirm if this was the battery theft suspect or just a guy sleeping.
The officer could see a sledgehammer and a large canister of bear spray on the truck’s front seat and put down a spike belt while awaiting backup.
A confrontation then occurred between the man and the officer, ending when the member fired his gun, RCMP said.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was called in to investigate and found that during the stolen property investigation, the RCMP officer shot the man in the cheek.
He was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
RCMP later determined both the truck and licence plate were stolen, and confirmed the Ford was originally from Saskatoon.
On Tuesday, ASIRT said the evidence gathered during its investigation provided reasonable grounds to believe that an offence had been committed.
The investigation was forwarded to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether the evidence met the standard for prosecution — which it said it did.
After that, ASIRT executive director Michael Ewenson determined the officer who was involved should be charged.
On July 28, Geordie Erickson was charged with aggravated assault.
ASIRT confirmed he is now retired. It’s not known when that happened, and investigators said no further details would be released because the case is now before the courts.
Erickson was released and is scheduled for his first court appearance on Aug. 28.
— With a file from The Canadian Press