A 27-year-old Maskwacis man is in critical condition in hospital after allegedly being shot by an RCMP officer at Samson Cree Nation on Thursday afternoon.
Maskwacis RCMP said they got a call about 1:25 p.m. from a resident reporting than a man was shooting a firearm in a rural area.
“Upon officers arrival, a confrontation occurred in which an officer discharged their service pistol and the suspect was injured,” said RCMP in a news release. “Officers administered first aid and emergency medical personnel were dispatched.”
The injured man was taken by STARS air ambulance to hospital, where he was listed in critical life-threatening condition in late afternoon. No officers were injured in the incident.
Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is investigating the circumstances of the officer involved shooting. ASIRT investigates events where serious injury or death may have been caused by police and serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.
“The Alberta RCMP believes in processes that seek the facts and it’s important that processes taken to assess the actions of all those involved, including the police, are fair, transparent, and defendable. This is why, as soon as we became aware of this incident, we immediately notified the Director of Law Enforcement and initiated our internal review process,” said RCMP.
Independent of ASIRT’s investigation, the Alberta RCMP’s internal review process has been implemented to gather a full account of what took place during this incident. RCMP training, policy, police response, and the duty status of the members involved will be subject to review. The Alberta RCMP is fully co-operating with ASIRT and will not be commenting further on this incident.