The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate after a man was shot by Edmonton police early Monday morning.
The incident took place in a rural area of Sturgeon County, between St. Albert and the CFB Edmonton military base, just north of the city.
Edmonton police said the situation began around 4:10 a.m., when two of its police officers came upon a break-in at the Petro-Canada gas station on Highway 37, near Highway 28, in the village of Namao.
“A Dodge truck was backed up to the gas station and the door to the building was damaged,” ASIRT said in a news release issued Tuesday.
“When officers arrived, the individuals inside the gas station ran back to the Dodge truck and tried to leave the scene.”
When the officers challenged the suspects, contact between the suspect and EPS vehicles occurred, resulting in EPS members firing their guns, police confirmed.
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A chase ensued, police said, which led the officers about seven kilometres southwest to 25005 Sturgeon Road, near Essex Point — or Township Road 543A and Township Road 543B — near the Regency Estates subdivision.
“The truck entered the ditch near a residential area,” ASIRT said on Tuesday. “One occupant of the truck fled on foot.”
A second vehicle contact occurred, Edmonton police said, at which point the officers fired their guns again.
“The truck fled again, eventually stopping due to a collision with a tree,” ASIRT said. “At this point, the remaining three occupants of the truck were arrested without further incident. The individual who fled on foot was apprehended separately.”
ASIRT said the early morning incident left a 37-year-old man with serious injuries. Edmonton police said the man suffered non-life threatening injuries and taken to hospital.
According to ASIRT, the injured man was a passenger in the truck and had sustained two gunshot wounds to his leg.
“Police provided medical care to the man until the arrival of emergency medical services,” ASIRT said.
“Upon the arrival of EMS, the man was treated and transported to hospital, where he was treated and released into the custody of EPS. No one else was injured during the course of this incident.”
No Edmonton Police Service officers were harmed, police said.
Both EPS and RCMP vehicles were at the second scene, which was taped off Monday morning. A truck was also spotted in a grove of trees on a property in the taped-off area.
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The Petro-Canada gas station was also taped off, where the front door of the business was smashed in.
The gas station is just down the road from both Namao School and Sturgeon Composite High School.
The Sturgeon Public School Division said a “hold and secure” protocol was enacted for both schools around 8 a.m., which deputy superintendent Ruth Kuik said meant operations were normal but the schools were controlling who had access to the buildings.
The protocol was ended around 9:40 a.m., after Edmonton police sent out their update explaining what happened.
ASIRT investigates incidents involving police that result in serious injury or death to any person, as well as serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.
Executive director Sue Hughson confirmed to Global News that the agency was called in, adding the investigation is in the very early stages.
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Since ASIRT has taken over the investigation, the EPS said it would not provide further comment.
–With files from Global News’ Phil Heidenreich
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