UPDATE: ASIRT investigates officer-involved shooting in Lethbridge

A 26-year-old man is dead after an shooting involving two Lethbridge Regional Police officers.

It happened around 11 p.m. on Sunday night, when officers were called to a home on Columbia Bay W. with reports of a disturbance involving a weapon.

While at the complaint, police say both officers fired their weapons, killing the man.

“We first and foremost have to worry about our safety and the safety of others,” said Police Chief Tom McKenzie. “If there is imminent danger, deadly force is most often resorted to in order to protect the lives of others.”

Police say a knife was recovered from the scene. The case has been taken over by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates incidents involving the actions of officers.

“It’s important for the family of the deceased, police, the Lethbridge community,” said Clif Purvis of ASIRT. “(It’s integral for them) that an independent, public investigation takes place.”

Neighbours say the street is made up of many young families. The shooting occuring just metres from a public playground.

“A lot of sirens,” says Bonnie Takats, who has lived on the street for two years. “We opened the front door to a barrage of headlights, a dozen police cars, the ambulance.”

Resident Caitlyn Pigeau called it shocking. “Not something you expect to wake up to,” she says.

The last officer-involved shooting in Lethbridge was in 2001 at a downtown apartment, when an officer was confronted in a hallway by a man brandishing a butcher knife. In 1998, officers shot and killed a man in the lobby of west Lethbridge apartment building. The victim’s family complained police used excessive force on the man who was a diagnosed schizophrenic.

Chief McKenzie says incidents involving lethal force are considered an officer’s “worst nightmare”.

“It’s an unfortunate part of police work that we might all have to face in our career,” says McKenzie. “It’s tragic, sad, anytime there’s a loss of life it’s not something to be treated lightly at all.”

Police say the family living in the home had recently immigrated to Canada. Neighbours Global News spoke to say the family kept to themselves.

ASIRT officials say investigation into the shooting is expected to take months.