A man who wanted to end his life was seeking to be killed by police when he showed up with an imitation gun at the RCMP detachment in Sherwood Park a few months ago, Alberta’s police watchdog has determined.
The final report into the shooting at the Strathcona County RCMP detachment was released by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team on Tuesday.
The shooting happened on July 28 at 10:30 a.m. in the gated, locked parking lot on the backside of the building, where police cruisers and other RCMP vehicles are secured.
An RCMP officer spotted a vehicle that shouldn’t have been in there and a man with what appeared to be a gun, so she radioed into the detachment to warn others.
Another officer was pulling into the lot and also heard the radio transmission.
There were about 40 and 50 staff on site — a mix of civilians and RCMP officers — so the detachment was put on lockdown.
Several other officers ran outside to provide backup to the two already out there.
The officer that had just parked got out of his unmarked police SUV and began yelling questions at the stranger in the parking lot, who walked towards the officer and pulled out what appeared to be a handgun.
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A few seconds later he raised the weapon and pointed it towards the officer.
ASIRT said he kept walking towards the Mounties for a few more seconds, pointing the weapon, at which point four officers fired their guns at the man and struck him several times.
The man fell to the ground and dropped his weapon, which later turned out to be a BB gun that closely resembled a real gun. ASIRT said in the moment, there was no way to know it wasn’t.
ASIRT said officers approached and told the man to give up his hands. He did, and they handcuffed him.
“You were supposed to kill me,” the man repeated a few times, along with comments of a similar sentiment.
The man had two notes on him, ASIRT said, and both alluded to suicide.
One note was directed specifically to “officer(s)” and apologized to them. ASIRT said the note indicated the man hoped they could overcome any trauma induced. The suicidal man survived his injuries.
RCMP questioned the man the day after the shooting. He told the investigators that he planned to commit suicide that day. He purchased a fake gun and ASIRT said his plan was to point it at officers to get them to shoot him. He said he was sorry, ASIRT said.
ASIRT determined 12 bullets were fired between the four officers in the parking lot. Two bullet holes were located on the nearby fire department building and two police vehicles had a single bullet hole each.
ASIRT said the officers acted reasonably in their use of force that day.
“When the (man) pointed the fake gun at (the officer), there was no way for any of the subject officers to know that it was fake. They believed reasonably that the (man) was about to kill or
seriously injure (the officer). They responded by defending (the officer) in the only way that could actually protect him in that instant and fired their guns at the (man).
“Their actions were reasonable and the defence provided them under s. 34 of the Criminal Code will apply.”
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