An image from RCMP dashcam, supplied in the final report by ASIRT, shows an RCMP officer on the right, and the suspect on the left with what turned out to be a BB gun. (ASIRT/RCMP)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

outside parkland mall

ASIRT clears Red Deer RCMP officer of wrongdoing in March 2023 incident

May 8, 2025 | 5:03 PM

RCMP have been cleared of wrongdoing in relation to an incident in north Red Deer which happened on March 12, 2023.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) shared its final report on the matter Thursday.

According to the initial RCMP reports from two years ago, it was around 11:30 a.m. that day when Red Deer RCMP responded to a complaint of a male discharging a firearm at the north Walmart parking lot.

Just after 2 p.m., officers located the male associated to the complaint in the area of Garden Heights and Carleton Avenue. It was there where, during an arrest attempt, an interaction occurred in which an officer discharged their firearm.

ASIRT says in their lengthy report, which can be read in full here, that the man survived after being struck by three bullets.

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As ASIRT notes, the incident originated in Calgary between March 6 and 9, leading to a missing persons report. Calgary is where the man had told his father he had to go for some job training. Just before 8 a.m. on March 9, the man said he was going to get something from the vehicle, but he took the vehicle and never returned.

Witness reports, confirmed by video from Walmart, suggested the vehicle being sought had entered Red Deer’s north Walmart parking lot around 10:40 the morning of March 12.

About 35 minutes later, RCMP received a 911 call about a male trying to steal a vehicle using a gun that was fired at least once in the Walmart parking lot.

The 911 caller advised that the owner of that vehicle had sped away in the vehicle, and described the perpetrator as a large Caucasian male.

The call ended when the caller said his phone was dying, but then RCMP traced the call back to the person they were searching for. It was later confirmed that it was the suspect himself who made the 911 call.

Around 12:10, the person being sought was seen walking eastbound on 67 Street.

Meantime, police searched the stolen vehicle, which belonged to the suspect’s father, and found what appeared to be suicide notes, as well as a kitchen knife set, with one missing.

The continued search led them to the man sitting at a bus stop near Carleton Avenue.

Video from the police vehicle captured large parts of the ensuing interaction.

It was just after 2:15 now, and the man both refused to identify himself to police, and to take his hands out of his pockets.

One officer then pointed his less-lethal baton launcher at the suspect who still would not comply to put his hands up; meantime, another officer was pointing his service pistol.

The officer with the pistol yelled, “I will shoot you,” ASIRT writes, but the man still didn’t comply.

The suspect then ran directly at the officer with the pistol, and in the process removed what appeared to be a firearm from his pocket.

This was later identified as a BB gun.

The officer with the baton launcher fired at the man, but missed; then the officer with the pistol out shot five bullets, hitting the suspect with three of them. The bullets hit the man in the head, the abdomen, and the buttocks.

ASIRT notes that while the man survived, he was left with a significant brain injury that had put him in an induced coma; he also needed surgery to his head and groin.

The officer who shot reported to ASIRT that he teamed up with the officer carrying the baton launcher as a means to avoid using his service pistol, given what they’d seen in the apparent suicide notes, and a desire to treat this as a mental health situation.

“The [officer] used clear communication with the [suspect] and tried to de-escalate the situation and minimize risk,” writes Matthew Block, assistant executive director, ASIRT.

“The [officer] was required or authorized by law to act that day and acted on reasonable grounds. The [officer’s] use of force was proportionate, necessary, and reasonable.”

rdnewsNOW has confirmed the man who was shot, then eventually charged, was Samuel Klack, of Winnipeg. He was 30 at the time of the incident.

On Dec. 12, 2024, in Manitoba Provincial Court, Klack was sentenced to two terms of 12 months’ house arrest, to be served consecutively, plus a 10-year firearms prohibition. He was sentenced on two charges; one for assaulting a police officer with a weapon, and one for using an imitation firearm. Four other charges were dropped.