A 37-year-old man was shot and killed by police after rampaging through industrial parking lots in a stolen front-end loader.
Red Deer RCMP said they were looking for the man in connection to a sexual assault on a 47-year-old woman and an attempted murder on a 20-year-old man.
The sex assault and attempted murder occurred Christmas morning in the same incident.
All the people involved in the morning incident were known to each other and all from the Red Deer area.
The two victims’ injuries are not life-threatening and they have received medical attention.
Mounties confronted the man at about 2 p.m. on Christmas in northwest Red Deer.
Police said the man had been rampaging through Burnt Lake and Edgar Industrial parks, crashing into unoccupied vehicles in a stolen front-end loader. He also hit an truck with people in it, but there were no serious injuries.
In an attempt to stop the front-end loader, an unoccupied police cruiser was also smashed by the 37-year-old.
The man was shot dead in a field near Range Road 273 and Twp Road 391, just north of Red Deer.
No police or civilians were injured in the sequence of events.
The director of law enforcement for Alberta Justice and the Solicitor General has ordered the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team take over the investigation into the shooting of the deceased man.
Red Deer RCMP will remain as the investigating agency for the earlier sex assault and attempted murder, collisions with vehicles and theft of the front-end loader.
ASIRT said more information will be released on Saturday.
Mounties will release more information on their investigation at a later time.
The name of the deceased will not be released, to protect the victims’ privacy.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com