EDMONTON — Police in Edmonton say officers shot and killed a robbery suspect Wednesday night, and a man in a nearby apartment building was also hit by gunfire.
"An innocent person not involved in this has lost a life," police Chief Dale McFee said Thursday.
At the building where the man was killed, a hole could be seen in the bottom corner of a basement window.
The man worked as the apartment's resident manager and livedon-site,said Robert McLeod, the president of the property management firm in charge of the building. He had only recently started working with the company but was a valued colleague and friend, McLeod added.
"He was a kind and caring man and liked by all (of) his co-workers. We were excited to be part of his new career and support those efforts," McLeod said in a statement.
"Our team is devastated."
Neighbours said the sound of multiple gunshots echoed through the area before police rushed to the apartment building.
"All of sudden we just heard bang, bang, bang, bang," said Steven Watkins, who was watching television with his girlfriend in a nearby apartment building. "(It was) this really loud banging sound coming from outside."
He said, in retrospect, it sounded "like someone was just pulling the trigger.”
McFee, who was visibly shaken during the Thursday news conference, said he's not sure how many bullets were fired or how the person in the apartment building was shot.
"There are so many different things that could have happened ... going through an individual into a building, missed into a building," McFee said.
Police had been called to a report of a man with a gun robbing a liquor store downtown, the chief said.
Officers located a suspect a few blocks away. McFee said there was a confrontation and officers fired their guns.
McFee said a firearm was located on the scene.
He added that the officers involved in the shooting have been removed from duty for their mental well-being.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, the group that investigates police-involved shootings, has been notified.
McFee said he cannot speculate about what happened but it's a very difficult situation for everyone involved.
"It's difficult for all. It's tragic," he said.
The shooting took place days after a separate fatal police encounter in Calgary. Latjor Tuel, a 41-year-old Black man born in South Sudan, was shot and killed on Saturday.
A Canadian Press database tracking police shootings across the country found 17 police shootings in Alberta in 2021, nine of which were fatal. That was up from 11 the previous year.
Of those, Edmonton police were involved in five shootings last year — three of which were fatal — up from four shootings the year before.
Experts say it is rare to have a bystander injured or killed in a police shooting in Canada.
The most recent incident was in November 2020 in Ontario. An 18-month-old baby was killed when Ontario Provincial Police opened fire on his father's truck. The father was also killed.
Temitope Oriola, a criminology professor at the University of Alberta and a former special adviser to the province in a review of its Police Act, said it's deeply troubling that a bystander was killed.
He said there are a lot of questions yet to be answered, including whether officers were being shot at and if officers were aware of how close they were to residential apartments.
"Available information suggests that the bystander was in a nearby suite," he said.
"Therefore, the incident raises questions about appropriate and proportional use of force by the (Edmonton police). People should feel safe in their own suite."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2022.
— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Winnipeg
Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
