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Mountie cleared by police watchdog after officer-involved shooting in Maskwacis in 2018

ASIRT
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An RCMP officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the province's police watchdog after an officer-involved shooting in Maskwacis in 2018.

On Oct. 21, 2018, police received 11 separate calls about gunshots from Maskwacis residents starting around 9:30 p.m.

Shortly after midnight on Oct. 22, two officers conducting foot patrols at the Samson town site heard gunshots from the A block.

According to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, one of the officers fired his carbine rifle in response to the shots, hitting two people.

ASIRT spoke to the two men who were shot. They said that they had been firing a long barreled rifle behind a house when they were shot by the officer.

One of the men was shot in the upper right thigh, the second had three bullet fragments in his left knee.

The officer who fired the shots also spoke to ASIRT.

He said they were at the A block when he saw one of the men fire a gun into the air twice. He went on to say that he heard the other officer yell “drop the gun” and saw the man fire another shot. He said he heard what he thought was the round go through the leaves and branches above his head.

It was at that point he fired his gun.

He said there was no reaction to the first shot, so he thought he did not hit anyone, at which point he fired a second shot.

A camouflage Winchester .270 bolt-action rifle was located at the scene by police after the two men were shot.

The ASIRT report says the officer was faced with a situation where he was “forced to respond with force likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death for self preservation.” 

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