Police watchdog says alleged hostage-taking suspect was alone when Mounties shot him

(File Photo)

EDMONTON -

Alberta's police watchdog says a suspect in an alleged hostage taking was alone when he was fatally shot by officers during a weekend standoff at an oilfield battery site.

RCMP said Saturday that they were called about a suspect who allegedly had a hostage in a rural area 10 kilometres west of Sunchild and O'Chiese First Nation, Alta.

Police said they believed the man was armed, and while on scene, learned that he was a suspect in a recent suspicious death north of Edmonton's downtown.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says in a news release that Mounties were originally investigating an armed carjacking in Parkland County, and that the suspect repeatedly contacted police and told them he was armed and had a hostage.

ASIRT says police found the stolen truck and used a dog to track the 39-year-old man to a building at an oilfield battery site, and officers tried to convince him to surrender.

The release says the man stepped outside of the building and “initiated a confrontation” with police, which prompted one officer to fire a weapon that uses “less lethal rounds,” and other officers then fatally shot the man with their service weapons.

“A 12-gauge pistol grip pump-action shotgun, as well as live and spent shotgun ammunition, were recovered on scene,” the ASIRT release said Monday.

“The scene was subsequently cleared and it was determined that during the period of containment, the man had been alone in the outbuilding.”

The man's name has not been released. Police said no officers were hurt.

ASIRT says the events leading up to the fatal shooting at the oilfield battery site, and any offences that may have been committed by the man - including the carjacking and possible homicide - remain under investigation by police.

The watchdog says its investigation will focus on the events related to the containment at the oilfield battery site and the use of force that ultimately resulted in the man's death.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2021.