Mounties justified in shooting man who took wife hostage in Grande Prairie: ASIRT

A semi-automatic Benelli M4 12-gauge shotgun was found on the kitchen floor of a home where a man took his estranged wife hostage before being shot by RCMP officers on Dec. 20, 2023. (Photo: Alberta Serious Incident Response Team)

Officers have been cleared in shooting a man during a hostage event in Grande Prairie in 2023.

RCMP were called to a home on Dec. 20 to reports of a man holding his estranged wife at gunpoint in her home.

According to a report released by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) on Wednesday the man had hit the woman in the face with the muzzle of the shotgun and was threatening to kill her.

• Sign up for breaking news emails from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

ASIRT said officers tried for several hours to get the man to surrender peacefully. While they were able to rescue the woman, the man refused to come outside.

The report said the man eventually made his way to a glass patio door and pointed the shotgun at responding officers. That’s when three officers shot at him, hitting him in the arm.

The man then dropped the gun, ASIRT said, and headed to a bedroom where he started a small fire. He would surrender to police shortly after.

ASIRT said there was evidence to suggest the man fired at officers first, but it could not find conclusive evidence.

Despite that, it found all three officers to be justified in the use of force, as the man posed a serious risk to the public and responding officers.

“They were aware that the (man) had already discharged his shotgun during this incident and had recently displayed it to police,” ASIRT’s report read. “He was making threats, and he was no longer speaking to negotiators who described him as erratic.

“The deliberate and directed action of the (man) to level and point the shotgun in the direction of police represented a sudden escalation in violence.”

At the time of the ASIRT report, he was facing criminal charges in relation to the event.