Two Bashaw, Alta., RCMP officers who shot and killed a suspected truck thief in 2017 as he dragged a third officer in an attempt to get away have been cleared of wrongdoing by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.
“The officers’ use of lethal force — employed only after the man failed to comply with commands and escalated the situation by putting the vehicle in motion and dragging the officer — was reasonable,” ASIRT said in a news release.
“These actions … gave rise to a risk of grievous bodily harm or death to the officer, and accordingly, the decision by officers to fire their service weapons, albeit a last resort, was both lawful and justified.”
RCMP received a call early on Oct. 19, 2017, about a Ford truck that had been stolen from the Keyera Nevis Gas Plant, near Bashaw, the release said.
Less than two hours later, police were called about a suspicious vehicle parked near Range Road 235 and Highway 11, about 50 kilometres away, east of Red Deer.
Three uniformed officers in marked police vehicles located the truck, which was parked with the engine running and a man asleep in the driver’s seat, a syringe on the console.
The officers placed a spike belt under the vehicle and used their vehicles to block the truck.
Driver slams truck into reverse
An officer opened the driver’s door and told the man he was under arrest. The man resisted, revving the engine and slammed the truck into reverse.
Two officers jumped out of the way, but the third was caught between the truck and the open driver’s door.
The truck crashed into the RCMP vehicle behind it and kept revving.
As the officer managed to free himself, his colleague, unable to see him, fired three rounds from his carbine.
The third officer fired a round from his service pistol.
The driver, a 37-year-old man, was shot in the head.
The truck continued reversing, driving the RCMP vehicle into the ditch with such force that it rolled.
The driver was taken by air ambulance to hospital in Edmonton where he was pronounced dead.
Toxicology reports revealed the presence of methamphetamine in his body.
ASIRT said the Criminal Code authorizes a police officer to use lethal force in circumstances when an officer believes, on reasonable grounds, it is necessary in saving their own or another’s life.
“The man’s conduct, trapping and dragging the officer between the door and the body of the moving vehicle, made the heavy-duty vehicle a weapon very capable of potentially causing that officer’s death,” the release said.
ASIRT’s mandate is to effectively, independently, and objectively investigate incidents involving Alberta’s police that have resulted in serious injury or death to any person, as well as serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.