The preliminary hearing for a Calgary police officer charged with two counts of second-degree murder got underway Monday. Const. Craig Stothard is facing charges after a low-speed pursuit through northeast Calgary in 2023 ended with two men dead. At the time, police had received reports of a five-ton cube van being driven erratically. Officers say they attempted to stop the vehicle as it was travelling westbound on Memorial Trail. They claim it eventually broke containment and moved toward officers. That’s when Stothard shot and killed two of the three people inside the van, according to the province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT). Stothard was booked after a lengthy ASIRT investigation recommended charges, though he’s not currently in custody. ‘There can’t be special priority’: victim’s mom Levon Fox, 39, and Wesley Davidson, 46, were killed. Fox’s brother, Dennis Wildman, was taken into custody. His mother, Lena Wildman, said Monday she’ll be in the courtroom every day of the hearing. “I’m willing to wait that long because this is for my son,” she said. “This is what I need to do for him.” Wildman has described the incident as an act of police brutality and wondered why further de-escalation tactics weren’t used by police. Over the next 10 days, a judge will decide if there’s enough evidence for the 13-year member’s case to go to trial. “Obviously, there is enough evidence to lay charges,” Wildman said. “So in order to follow the whole process through, there can’t be any special priority treatment given to the accused, simply because he was on the line of duty as a police officer. “It should be just like any other person charged for second-degree murder—not once, but twice.” Don MacLeod, Stothard’s lawyer, has previously told CTV News his client “maintains his innocence.”
