Independent investigators have cleared a Yukon police officer in the 2022 fatal shooting of a man who threatened others with a gun.
In released a report by the civilian-led Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which has an agreement to investigate such incidents in the Yukon, investigators said an officer who shot the man at Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport “acted properly in the execution of his duties. ”
The shooting occurred on November 24, 2022, when a man with a gun followed an airline employee past an airport security gate, pointed the gun at another person and pulled the trigger.
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The gun did not fire, and the man pointed the gun at his own chin and pulled the trigger, again failing to fire a shot.
According to the report, the suspect then attacked a tractor driver, punching him and hitting the man with the gun before following the driver into a hangar and firing at least one round into the air.
When RCMP subsequently arrived on the scene, the suspect ignored orders to stop and drop the weapon, telling police to shoot him before an officer fired two shots, killing the man.
Under the Criminal Code, “a police officer is entitled to do what he or she is authorized to do and to use as much force as is reasonably necessary if he or she has reasonable grounds to do so,” Alberta Executive Director Michael Ewenson said. Serious Incident Response Team, the report said.
“Force intended to cause death or serious bodily harm is justified if the officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that the force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily harm to the officer and/or another person.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
