A 40-year-old man is dead after an officer-involved shooting on the Frog Lake First Nation in east-central Alberta, and the province’s police watchdog is investigating the death.
In a news release on Friday, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) said officers were searching for a man on the First Nation in relation to a robbery.
Officers said they found the man at a family member’s home, but he refused to come out.
While police were attempting to get a warrant, ASIRT said the RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) responded and contained the home. ERT attempted to negotiate with the man to surrender, but were unsuccessful.
Shortly after 9 p.m., the “situation escalated, resulting in officers firing their service weapons” and the suspect was shot and fatally wounded.
Details about how the situation escalated have not been released.
Late that evening, a “confrontation” occurred that resulted in the officers firing their weapons.
No officers were injured and police said there was no concern for public safety, but ASIRT said police found a sawed-off shotgun at the scene.
ASIRT will be looking into the officers’ conduct and the shooting, while the RCMP will continue to investigate the events that led to the “serious incident,” an RCMP news release said.
Frog Lake First Nation is located about 207 kilometres east of Edmonton.