ASIRT not recommending charges against officer in 2018 O’Chiese shooting incident

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With wheels spinning and the truck rocking back and forth as the officers were in the ditch, ASIRT describes, one of the officers fired his service pistol seven times at or into the truck.

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The suspect then managed to get the truck out of the ditch, but drove over a spike belt; he then continued driving until the tires fell or wore off and the vehicle spun out.

The suspect and other pair from the vehicle fled into the bushes and were not yet apprehended by police. ASIRT says there were also no apparent injuries to anyone, specifically from the discharge of the firearm.

The suspect was later apprehended and interviewed, where he stated that on the night of the incident, he was a passenger in a truck with three other occupants. He was not willing to identify them, but confirmed two were male and one was female.

The male denied being the driver of the truck when the interaction with RCMP began.

“AP (affected person — the male) stated they were driving around near the O’Chiese First Nation when a marked RCMP Suburban came out of a driveway towards them with no emergency lights or headlights on, and tried to run them off the road,” ASIRT reports. “AP told the driver to punch it to get out of there, and they began to flee. AP believed that the RCMP Suburban was trying to stop them or force them into the ditch by ‘hogging’ the road. He did not know why the RCMP were trying to apprehend them. However, AP knew he had made an error by being out contrary to his house arrest.”

The male later stated, according to ASIRT, that he had been in previous police pursuits as a passenger where after five minutes into the pursuit, the police shut off their emergency equipment and stopped pursuing.

More details of the interview and witness officer accounts can be read here.

A post-incident vehicle examination found there were bullet holes in the rear cab lining and the front roof lining. There was also a part of the steering wheel visibly impacted by a bullet.

ASIRT also acquired in-car video from police which show a prolonged driving pattern of the suspect vehicle, but not directly the shooting itself. One video captures the sounds of the event just prior to the truck leaving the ditch.

As is his right, ASIRT notes, the officer chose not to provide a statement to ASIRT.

“Given the SO (the subject officer) shooting at the truck with the occupants in it over an extended period of time, ASIRT determined that there were reasonable grounds to believe a firearms offence may have been committed,” ASIRT says. “An opinion was sought by the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS) on whether charges should be pursued. The ACPS reviewed the ASIRT investigation and recommended no charges against the SO.”

In accordance with the opinion provided by the ACPS, ASIRT says it will not be laying charges against the officer.