Edmonton police said the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating after a traffic stop escalated to violence, leaving one person dead, and an officer injured.
Police said it all started Monday at about 9:30 p.m., when a concerned citizen reported a possible impaired driver to police – and officers conducted a traffic stop on the suspect vehicle.
EPS said a confrontation occurred – and the suspect was fatally shot, and an EPS member was wounded.
Because shots were fired, ASIRT has been called in to lead the investigation – investigators were on the scene overnight.
ASIRT said the suspect, and driver, was a 31-year-old man, who had a sawed-off shotgun with him.
Officers on the scene took the officer to hospital with non-life threatening injuries – CTV News has learned the officer’s wound was on his lower body, ASIRT said he’s expected to make a full recovery.
Multiple sources with EPS identified the officer as Jeff Park, an officer who has eight years of experience with the Edmonton Police Service.
“One of the most dangerous things police officers do is stop cars and the public probably doesn’t appreciate that because they think ‘I’m just getting a ticket’,” Chief Rod Knecht said. “It’s really an unknown for us.
“When we stop a car such as this type of situation, you stop a car, you don’t know who’s in the vehicle, what they have been doing or what they’re planning on doing so this is just another example of a simple traffic stop that turns into something.”
ASIRT said the suspect was known to police, and was not the registered owner of the vehicle he had been driving.
With files from David Ewasuk and Laura Tupper
