Axe recovered from the scene. (ASIRT)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

no wrongdoing, says asirt

Officers cleared in July 2022 Stettler shooting involving axe-wielding man

Nov 28, 2025 | 4:59 PM

Officers have been cleared of wrongdoing in connection to a July 24, 2022 incident in Stettler where a man was shot.

According to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), RCMP were responding that night to a roadside report that there was a male in the area brandishing an axe and threatening people.

It was just after 10 p.m. when Stettler RCMP were dispatched to a disturbance caused by several males who were yelling and fighting for over an hour.

Officers patrolled the street near the reported address and did not observe any ongoing activity, as it ahd been described.

As they were driving away, a woman frantically approached the police vehicle and advised the members that a man had chased her and her boyfriend down a nearby alley with an axe.

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In ASIRT’s final report, it says the officer drove to the nearby alley, exited his vehicle armed with his service pistol, and advised the man with the axe that he was under arrest.

The man is said to have ignored this, and shortly thereafter another officer withdrew their conducted energy weapon, commonly known as a Taser.

The first officer noted that the suspect was wearing a sheathed knife on his right hip, and both officers gave him verbal commands to get on the ground and not reach for the knife.

The suspect continued to ignore commands and pulled the knife out of its sheath, then threw it at the officers.

The first officer then fired a single shot from his pistol, striking the suspect in the groin. Meantime, the knife had landed five feet in front of where the officers were standing.

A scene examination led to the discovery of a yellow and black axe with black electrical tape around the top of the handle.

“The [officer’s] use of force was proportionate, necessary, and reasonable. As a result, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed,” says ASIRT’s Acting Executive Director Matthew Block.

According to court records, then 51-year-old Rodney Crocker (now 54) was charged with four counts of assault with a weapon, three counts of threats to cause death or bodily harm, one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and one count of possession of property under $5,000.

On Dec. 1, 2023, Crocker was found guilty on all but two of the assault charges.

On April 11, 2024, he was given a conditional sentence of nine months, and a firearms prohibition.

The full report can be read here.

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READ MORE: ASIRT seeking witnesses to officer-involved shooting in Stettler