Alberta’s police watchdog has released more details about a police pursuit in Calgary last weekend that ended with a suspect being shot on Deerfoot Trail. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says officers were called to the Deerfoot Meadows shopping centre off Deerfoot Trail just after 4 p.m. on June 21 for reports of an erratic driver. When police later located the SUV, it was travelling on northbound Deerfoot Trail between Memorial Drive E. and 16 Avenue N.E. Police said officers believed the driver to be someone who had driven erratically and fled police over the past 24 hours. Officers pulled the driver over in the far-left lane. “After police stopped the SUV, officers blocked northbound traffic and, within minutes, police had also stopped southbound traffic at 16 Avenue N.E.,” ASIRT said in a Friday news release. “The driver remained inside the SUV. Initial information from officers at the scene indicated that she had a knife.” According to ASIRT, though officers tried to speak with the suspect, she remained inside the SUV. “About 20 minutes after police first stopped the SUV, officers approached the passenger side of the vehicle. Police broke the front passenger-side window and deployed OC spray — commonly known as pepper spray — into the SUV.” ASIRT says it was then that the woman exited the vehicle and began moving toward officers. During the interaction that followed, officers used a projectile launcher and a Taser. “One officer also fired a police rifle,” ASIRT said. “The specific sequence of events remains under investigation.” Officers did recover a knife. Police gave the woman medical care until paramedics arrived to take her to hospital. She was transported in life-threatening condition but later died. ASIRT says it will continue to examine the actions of police, including the force used during the incident.
