WETASKIWIN, Alta. -- The agency that reviews officer-involved shootings in Alberta has ruled Mounties were justified in shooting and wounding a man who fired arrows at them, narrowly missing one officer.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says RCMP were called to an apartment in Wetaskiwin, Alta., just before 4 a.m. on March 24, 2015, after receiving reports of a fight between a woman and a man.
The woman fled the apartment and called police, advising them the man had a crossbow and was looking for a fight.
At the same time, the man sent a text to an associate saying that police were coming and that he would be "fighting till I die."
After a brief standoff, the man left the suite with a compound bow firing at officers and taunting them, inviting them to fire back.
RCMP yelled at the man to drop his weapon but he wouldn't comply and two officers fired, striking him once in the upper body.
The man was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery.
The investigation found arrows in an area behind where the officers had been positioned.
"A compound bow and arrow is a potentially lethal weapon and, depending on the bow and arrow, has the capacity to penetrate police body armour," ASIRT said in a news release.
