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Woman fatally shot by police in Sherwood Park prompts ASIRT investigation

Click to play video: 'Woman dies after police shooting in Sherwood Park, Alta.'
Woman dies after police shooting in Sherwood Park, Alta.
Woman dies after police shooting in Sherwood Park, Alta – Sep 23, 2019

A residential street in a neighbourhood on the south side of Sherwood Park was blocked off and investigators were on scene Monday morning after a fatal police shooting.

Sherwood Park RCMP said it received a call around 7:30 a.m. from a woman who “requested members attend her residence for assistance.”

Mounties said when they arrived, there was a confrontation with the woman and one of the police officers fired their gun.

The woman suffered a serious injury and was taken to hospital where she died, RCMP said, adding no officers were injured.

Sue Hughson, executive director of ASIRT, confirmed the agency has been directed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the officer-involved shooting.

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The incident happened in the Sherwood Heights neighbourhood, where a section of Pine Street near Cottonwood Avenue was blocked off.

Watch below: Alberta’s police watchdog is investigating after a morning shooting in Sherwood Park. As Breanna Karstens-Smith explains, a woman died following the incident that saw an officer discharge their weapon.

Click to play video: 'Sherwood Park woman dies after police involved shooting'
Sherwood Park woman dies after police involved shooting

Both uniformed RCMP officers and plain-clothes investigators were at the scene, where forensic markers could be seen on the driveway of a home.

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Police could also be seen putting what appeared to be a Samurai sword into an evidence bag.

The scene is very close to Pine Street Elementary, however Elk Island Public Schools said the school was not a part of the police investigation but parents may have difficulty accessing the school due to the road closure on Pine Street.

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Shelby Hines, the principal at Pine Street Elementary School, issued a brief statement on Monday with a message for parents of children at the school.

“It’s come to our attention there is an ongoing police investigation on Pine Street this morning; as such, access to the school from Pine Street may be impacted,” she said. “If you are bringing your children to school this morning and usually come that way, you may wish to find an alternate route.”

Dustin Uranick lives on the street and didn’t hear the shooting. He didn’t know anything was amiss until a fire truck pulled up.

“I didn’t hear a dang thing. It was weird,” he said, adding he has seen police at the home twice in the past few weeks.

“And not just once officer — there’s multiple police cars and everything,” he said, adding the house is a rental.

“It’s one of the only ones really on the street and in the last 10 years there’s been about four or five people that stayed in there and everything, and there’s been issues every tenant,” he claimed.

Uranick didn’t know exactly how many people live in the home and said things were generally quiet outside of the couple of recent police visits.

“I’m hoping it’s just an isolated incident and it doesn’t happen again.”

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WATCH: ASIRT is investigating after a woman was fatally shot by police in Sherwood Park. Breanna Karstens-Smith has the details from the scene.

Click to play video: 'Woman fatally shot by police in Sherwood Park prompts ASIRT investigation'
Woman fatally shot by police in Sherwood Park prompts ASIRT investigation

Ross Cushman lives in the area where the shooting occurred. He said the home that police appear to have been called to has seen some police activity this month and that he knows of at least two calls made to bylaw officers about dogs that live at the home.

After the shooting, Cushman said he saw an officer go into a police cruiser. Cushman said he thought the officer appeared to be “traumatized.”

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