CALGARY — Alberta’s police watchdog has cleared two RCMP officers who shot and wounded an armed man during a 56-second confrontation on Ermineskin Cree Nation.The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) concluded the officers’ use of force during the June 24, 2025 incident was “proportionate, necessary and reasonable.”“There are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed,” ASIRT Executive Director Matthew Block said in a decision released Wednesday.Police were dispatched to a residence at approximately 2:30 p.m. after the man’s mother called for help and reported that her son was making suicidal statements.She told a dispatcher he had “a pipe and a gun, I mean a pipe inside that pipe.”Officers were also advised the man had a history of violence and was prohibited from possessing firearms.Three officers arrived in two unmarked vehicles and found the man outside holding long metal objects. Video showed him pointing one toward police while manipulating the other.Officers repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon before one officer opened fire. The man moved behind a parked vehicle but later reappeared while still holding both objects.A second officer arrived as the man advanced toward police and also fired. The man then entered the passenger side of an idling police vehicle before the first officer fired a final volley..ASIRT finds grounds for charges after Calgary arrest but Crown declines prosecution of police officers .The first officer fired approximately 28 rounds during the confrontation, while the second discharged about seven rounds.The man suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and wrist. Officers provided first aid before he was transported by air ambulance to the University of Alberta Hospital for surgery.Investigators recovered a metal pipe, steel axle and unfired 20-gauge shotgun shell. Firearms testing determined the pipe was a cut section of a shotgun barrel that, together with the other components, formed a prohibited improvised firearm capable of firing the shell.The man denied possessing a pipe gun or entering the police vehicle, but ASIRT said those claims were directly contradicted by video evidence.His mother and common-law spouse also denied he had a firearm. ASIRT said the mother’s recorded statement to the dispatcher shortly before officers arrived undermined her later account.ASIRT said the man repeatedly refused commands to disarm, pointed the firearm toward officers and advanced on them.The agency also said his actions could be interpreted as an attempt to provoke a deadly police response following statements that he wanted to join his deceased brother.
