EDMONTON – The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is in Cold Lake to investigate an RCMP officer-involved fatal shooting that happened on Thursday afternoon.
RCMP say officers were called to a home on the Cold Lake First Nation at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. They were there to execute an arrest warrant in connection with a sexual assault investigation when a confrontation took place, according to ASIRT.
A 52-year-old man was shot by police. He was taken to Cold Lake hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Cold Lake First Nation has released the following statement about the incident:
“Cold Lake First Nation Chief & Council would like to express our sincere condolences to the Charland family in light of the recent fatality on our Nation. We are asking that you please respect the privacy of the family during their time of mourning. In the coming days, we will provide more information to our members as the facts and investigation are under way in the fatal shooting of a member from our Nation. Cold Lake’s administration offices will close today at noon in respect for the family and our cultural ways.”
ASIRT – an independent body established by the government to investigate incidents involving injuries or deaths resulting from the actions of a police officer – was notified about the shooting by RCMP.
ASIRT was on scene on Friday and an independent review of the incident is now underway.
“ASIRT investigators have recovered a knife from the scene of the incident. Multiple RCMP officers were on scene at the time of the shooting and there were both plain clothed and uniformed RCMP officers at the scene,” said Sarah Jackson, a spokesperson for ASIRT.
Cold Lake First Nation is located about 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
This is the fourth incident ASIRT has been called on to look into in recent weeks.
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