WARNING: Disturbing content.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says a large hunting knife was found near a man fatally shot by police Thursday afternoon.
The 55-year-old man was shot in southwest Edmonton’s Hodgson neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon.
Aman Jaggi was home at the time. He was getting dressed at around 1:45 p.m. when he heard muttering outside his bedroom window.
“I didn’t think much of it at all and then, out of nowhere, I just heard four gunshots go off. I looked outside my window and I saw a cop over a body. I quickly put my clothes on and I just ran outside.
“I asked him if he needed any help and he said he didn’t,” Jaggi said. “He had just asked me to stick around to be a witness.
“He said that he was following an impaired driver for quite some time and that he pulled the driver over and the driver came outside of the vehicle with a hunting knife and… tried to attack the cop. The cop, I guess he was moving back and he slipped on ice and had to take out his firearm and shoot the gentleman,” Jaggi said.
“If somebody’s coming at you with a knife and you’re on the ground, you’re going to shoot him, right? You’re not going to think where you’re going to shoot him; you’re going to shoot him so he falls back or something with the impact.”
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Jaggi saw one wound on the side of the man’s body and said his face and neck were covered in blood. Jaggi said the officer called for help immediately and started chest compressions and CPR.
He said the officer appeared to be shaken up.
“He was like: ‘I really didn’t want to do this in my career.'”
“In the moment, it was kind of like adrenaline,” Jaggi said. “It kind of seems like a movie scene right now. Until last night, I was still kind of mind-boggled over it all.”
READ MORE: ASIRT investigates after driver shot and killed by police in southwest Edmonton
According to police, the officer was asked to respond to reports of a possibly impaired driver.
“There were two separate 911 calls from citizens indicating that the driver of the vehicle was swerving all over the road and and possibly impaired,” Deputy Chief Kevin Brezinski said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “A police officer was directed to investigate these complaints.”
Brezinski said at around 1:45 p.m., a six-year veteran of the police force pulled the vehicle over near Hollands Landing. At that point, police said both the officer and the driver being pulled over got out of their vehicles.
He said an “encounter” occurred which led to the officer shooting the driver.
The officer and others performed CPR until EMS arrived, however, the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
When ASIRT responded, “a large hunting knife was recovered near the deceased and seized,” the agency said in a news release Friday.
An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.
Watch below: A large hunting knife was found at the scene where a 55-year-old man was shot by police Thursday. Shallima Maharaj spoke to a witness. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.
ASIRT said its investigation will focus on “the circumstances surrounding the confrontation that resulted in the discharging of the officer’s police weapon.”
Brezinski said the officer involved most recently completed his gun qualifications and training in April 2016.
“As per Edmonton Police Service policy, the officer has now been placed on administrative leave and will receive support,” he said. “We know little about the victim at this time but we do believe he has a family in Edmonton.”
“We are currently in the process of identifying and reaching out to family members to offer our thoughts and condolences on these tragic circumstances.”
With files from Shallima Maharaj and Phil Heidenreich, Global News
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