A police officer was rushed to hospital Tuesday afternoon after he was shot while responding to an incident in a northeast neighbourhood.
“This incident began early this morning with a robbery of a convenience store,” said CPS Chief Consta “Following the robbery and brandishing a firearm, the suspect allegedly attempted to carjack a woman outside a home in the 100 block of Abingdon Way N.E.“
According to Chaffin, there was reports of an attempted break-in at a nearby residence shortly before noon.and officers located the suspect in the vicinity.
“They located a man matching the description located between two houses on Abingdon Way. As officers entered the backyard, the suspect began firing shots at the officers. It is our understanding that members of our service returned fire. One officer was shot and was taken to hospital.”
Media and people in the area were told to take shelter while police worked to contain the scene.
“There was about 10, 20 cop cars and then all of a sudden you hear gunshots so we’re all running into our house and then we keep popping our heads out to make sure if everybody’s okay and it was very scary,” said Aereyanna Rafferty who lives three doors down from the scene.
“I hope he’s okay. We saw him go down and they dragged him to the middle of the road and they just kept yelling to him, stay with us, stay with us,” said Tracy who lives in the area. “It was very traumatic, it truly was.”
Soon after, an officer was escorted to hospital from the scene and police held intersections along the route to give EMS the right of way.
Chaffin says the suspect entered a detached garage and CPS members, including members of the tactical unit, established a perimeter around the structure.
"While the garage was contained, smoke was observed to be coming from the structure which ultimately became fully engulfed. Members of the Calgary Fire Department were called in to extinguish the fire. Once the fire was extinguished, one man was located deceased inside the garage.”
The identity of the deceased suspect has not been released. An autopsy is expected to be conducted in the coming days.
Members of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) have been notified of the incident and investigators will review the actions of the responding officers.
“I’m very proud of how our members, and there were dozens of them that responded to this call, acted with tenacity, professionalism and bravery,” said Chaffin. “Our members acted with incredible courage in a situation that escalated in a matter of seconds.”
Chaffin says he visited the injured officer, a five-year CPS veteran who Chaffin met for the first time one day prior, in hospital and the officer's condition is considered stable.“It’s been a very traumatic event for him."
The Chief Constable says the increase of weapons in Calgary and the chaotic behavour of some suspects has made policing increasingly difficult.
"Our officers go to scenes without a lot of information. They don’t know what they’re going to confront in each situation but they use their training and their tactics and their support for each other to make sure that they can be safe.”
Chaffin says its been nearly 25 years since the last time an on-duty member of the CPS was shot.
