ASIRT has been called in to investigate after a 27-year-old woman was shot and killed by a police officer in the city's southwest on Tuesday morning.
Police were called to a home in the 1700 block of 11 Avenue S.W. for a check on welfare call at about 2:30 a.m.
When officers arrived, they saw a woman wandering down the street, acting erratically and pounding on cars and the front door of an apartment building.
The woman was allegedly carrying two knives, one in each hand, and was confronted by officers.
The situation escalated and one of the officers fired her weapon at the woman.
The woman collapsed and she was taken to hospital in life threatening condition, but later died.
Calgary police have shot at someone ten times this year and of those, five have been fatal.
“Each level of force is really based on the merits of the situation they’re faced with, the space they’re in, the time they have, the information they have leading to their interaction with somebody so they’re all very challenging and dynamic and as you can appreciate, often times it’s based on the behavior of the offender on what sort of things we can accomplish. The type of officers we have at the scene, the type of skillsets we have and then the behavior of the offender, that will lead us to determine how we will approach that call so it is dynamically different from one call to the next,” said CPS Police Chief Roger Chaffin.
CPS says the officer who fired her weapon is a one-year member of the force.
Chief Chaffin says he believes the officer who fired acted appropriately.
“The members involved in this incident have my full and complete support,” said Chaffin. “From the information I am given, I am firmly of the belief that this member acted appropriately to protect herself, her partner and members of the public.”
Chaffin says there is a changing trend in criminality in the city and that drugs are often the motivating factor behind many crimes.
“So much of the crime we’re experiencing has to do with the presence of methamphetamine, the presence of opioids in the city and then, sort of, the motives for crimes around those drugs. Heavy, heavy addiction, without the right kind of treatments, that forces people into crime, to support that drug can be a big problem,” he said.
Chaffin says his officers are not ‘trigger happy’ and that officers are often faced with making a quick decision.
“I see every officer who is involved in one of these things and quite the opposite. What you’ll see is officers who are really struggling with that role. We hire reflective of the community, we don’t hire by strength or by skillsets, we’re not hiring soldiers, we’re hiring people who are very reflective of what it is to be Calgarians and you can image, all of you, having to make that decision, what that’ll do to you as well,” he said. “We want our officers to make reasonable decisions, to be prepared for those decisions but all based on the merits that they’re faced with at that time.”
Chaffin says a proposal has also been put forward for an independent review of the shootings involving Calgary police officers.
ASIRT is investigating and is asking anyone with information to contact them at 403-592-4306.
Members of the southwest community of Sunalta tell CTV that they are organizing a gathering to remember the five people who have been killed by police this year.
It will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Sunalta Community Hall, just a short distance away from where the latest shooting transpired.