A man is dead on a Saskatchewan First Nation in a police-involved shooting.
Saskatchewan RCMP said officers from the Punnichy detachment went to the Gordon First Nation on Tuesday afternoon after someone reported that a man with a rifle was making threats in the community.
Police said the responding officers fired a gun during the incident, injuring the man.
The officers then performed life-saving measures on the man until Lestock Emergency Medical Service arrived. He was pronounced dead a short time later by EMS.
The RCMP have not released his name and have not released any other details into the incident.
Assistant-Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer for the Saskatchewan RCMP, said the Weyburn Police Service will conduct an independent external police investigation into the shooting.
“The Saskatchewan RCMP takes these matters very seriously and, as such, we are giving the Weyburn Police Service our full cooperation as they conduct an external investigation into the circumstances surrounding what happened today,” Blackmore said in a release on Tuesday.
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“I offer my deepest condolences to all of those affected by this incident.”
According to Weyburn police chief Jamie Blunden, two officers from his force are currently leading the external investigation on Gordon First Nation.
When it comes to officers investigating other officers’ actions, he says the most important thing is making sure biases are set aside.
“Whether you’re investigating a police officer or you’re investigating an individual from the street, I think today’s day and age we need to be accountable to the public, we need to be accountable to ourselves and also to the processes,” Blunden said.
The RCMP has also requested Saskatchewan’s minister of justice appoint two independent investigation observers, one with First Nation ancestry.
Blunden says once his officers conduct the investigation and gather evidence and statements, a report will be submitted to the independent observers to review.
Blunden could not provide an exact timeline as to when the investigation would conclude.
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