Alberta RCMP justified in shooting assault suspect: ASIRT

An RCMP cruiser can be seen in this file photo. (David Prisciak/CTV News)

Alberta's police oversight agency says an officer was justified in fatally shooting a man who, while high on meth, assaulted a woman, choked her dog, stole her car keys and stabbed a police dog.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team said in a report released Tuesday that there was a no-contact order between the man and his girlfriend, and the couple would have her roommate drive him around to make it look like he wasn't at the home.

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In June 2021, in a paranoid state, the man made the roommate drive him toward the eastern Alberta city of Cold Lake using back roads.

During the drive, the man asked his girlfriend's roommate whether she valued her car more than her dog, and then began choking her dog. She slammed on the brakes and was able to get herself and the animal out of the vehicle.

The woman started to run into a nearby field, but the man caught up with her. He then struck her on the head as she unsuccessfully tried to stop him from taking her car keys and phone.

The woman flagged down help and RCMP officers arrived shortly after. They found the man in a fenced oil well compound, after which he fled into the woods.

Officers eventually tracked him down and, when he didn't listen to their commands and became agitated, a police dog bit the man's left arm, which he had extended as though presenting it to the canine.

The man seemed immune to the pain of the bite, saying "That's the beauty of meth," and struck the dog several times. At some point in the scuffle, the man stabbed the dog in the jaw and sliced its head.

Two officers struggled to subdue the man, still wielding the knife.

"He stabbed (the dog) and he is going to stab us. Shoot him, shoot him!" one officer told the other.

"The (first officer) could hear the fear in (the second officer's) voice and realized at that moment they were no longer fighting to arrest (the man), they were fighting for their lives," the watchdog wrote in the report.

In the struggle, one officer got a hold of his service pistol and fired into the man's shoulder. The bullet went through both lungs and the man's aorta, killing him. An autopsy found high levels of meth in his blood.

"The force used was proportionate, necessary and reasonable in all the circumstances. As a result, there are no grounds to believe that an offence was committed," said the report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 22, 2024.