EDMONTON -- Investigators say a woman killed in a confrontation with police in Sherwood Park was running at officers armed with a Katana sword when she was fatally shot.
Alberta’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), is investigating the fatal encounter that took place in the Pine Street area around 7:30 a.m. Monday.
Police said they were responding to the 42-year-old woman’s calls for assistance early Monday, beginning at 3 a.m.
The woman’s first call was a complaint that someone was in her backyard, according to ASIRT. She told police she was in an abusive relationship and was worried someone associated with her incarcerated boyfriend might be on her property.
Police searched the area but couldn’t find anyone and left.
They said they were called back to the home a second time around 7:25 a.m. after the woman called to report she was going to take her own life.
“She advised she had been drinking and had been planning to kill herself for a while,” ASIRT said in a news release. “She advised she was armed with a knife and a Katana sword. She detailed what had been happening in her life and was despondent and distraught.”
Officers arrived at the home while a dispatcher tried to keep her on the line and de-escalate the situation.
“After some time the woman said ‘I have to hang up now’ and abruptly ended the call,” ASIRT said.
Police called her back and she asked why then weren’t at her home yet, then hung up again, presumably because officers were arriving.
Authorities say video shows what happened next. The woman exited her home and ran at police officers with her sword extended, according to ASIRT.
They told her to drop the weapon but she continued to get closer to officers “where a confrontation occurred that resulted in on officer discharging a firearm,” said ASIRT.
The woman was struck and fell to the ground. She was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
No officers were injured in the incident.
The woman has not been publicly identified but neighbours told CTV News Edmonton Monday that police had been to the home multiple times in recent weeks.
"I'm not really sure who it was. It's a rental property so there's been maybe in the last 10 years, four or five that have lived there,” said neighbor Dustin Uranick. “There have been incidences in late August and September where there’s cops showing up."
The response team said no further information on the incident will be released.
ASIRT investigates all officer-involved incidents that result in serious injury or death to any person.
