4 officers cleared in July shooting of man at police headquarters in Sherwood Park

Alberta's police watchdog has cleared multiple officers who fired at a man at the Sherwood Park RCMP detachment earlier this year.

Four police officers who shot a man armed with what they thought was a handgun in late July at Strathcona County’s RCMP headquarters in Sherwood Park have been cleared of wrongdoing by the province’s police watchdog.

Matthew Block, the acting executive director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), said in his report the officers “acted reasonably” in collectively firing 12 shots at the 54-year-old man on July 28 in the secure parking lot of the detachment.

The incident began when an officer driving past the parking lot saw the man holding a gun. She then contacted people inside the detachment building to warn them of the threat.

Four officers responded to the scene, including three who came from the building and one who was in a black, unmarked police SUV parked in the lot.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The officer in the SUV drove to the man and stopped. The man “quickly” approached the officer, who then got out of the vehicle, drew his gun and yelled, “Hey man, what are you doing?”

According to Block’s report, the officer failed to see that the man was holding a gun.

At that point, three more officers came into the parking lot with handguns drawn, while another left a parked vehicle with a rifle drawn.

Footage from a body-worn camera captured the officer who was wearing it yell, “Stop! Get on the ground! Get on the ground!”

The man then pulled out a handgun, continued to walk toward the officer standing beside the unmarked SUV and, three seconds later, pointed it at him for three-to-four seconds before four officers fired their weapons at him, the report said.

The man was struck by bullets several times and dropped the handgun, which turned out to be a BB gun that closely resembled a real one.

While the officers handcuffed the man and checked him for injuries, the man said repeatedly, “You were supposed to kill me,” among other similar comments. Two notes found on the man alluded to suicide, the report said.

The man survived his injuries. He is charged with using an imitation firearm while committing an indictable offence, assault with a weapon and assaulting a police officer with a weapon.

Two bullet holes were found on the nearby fire station. Two nearby police vehicles were each struck once.

Block wrote in the ASIRT report that “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the subject officers committed an offence.” He said a police officer has the same protections under the Criminal Code as any other person when it comes to self-defence, and that they had reasonable grounds to believe force was being threatened against them or someone else and took reasonable action under the circumstances.

Block also said the officers are permitted “to use as much force as is necessary for execution of their duties” under the Criminal Code, arguing they “must have believed on reasonable grounds that the force they used was necessary for their self-preservation or the preservation of another person under their protection.”