The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has cleared members of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) of any wrongdoing in a 2016 Taser incident that sent a man to hospital.
In a news release issued on Monday, the province’s police watchdog said officers were called the area of Jasper Avenue and 90 Street at around 6:45 a.m. on June 20, 2016 after reports that a man was seen carrying a knife and a machete.
Officers arrived and saw a man running away with a knife in his hand.
After a short chase, ASIRT said police confronted the man and told him to drop the knife. He dropped the weapon but didn’t listen to further demands. ASIRT said the man “advanced on an officer while still possibly armed” and an officer behind the suspect used a stun gun to stop him.
The man stopped, fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. EMS took him to hospital after his arrest. He sustained a non-life-threatening head injury.
The ASIRT investigation concluded that police had used reasonable force in attempting to arrest the man. The man later admitted to being under the influence of an unknown intoxicant and said he had no memory of the incident.
No charges will be laid.
ASIRT is called in to investigate any incident involving law enforcement when someone is killed or injured.
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