Two Lethbridge police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing in separate incidents from 2018 and 2020 , after a pair of Alberta Serious Incidents Response Teams (ASIRT) investigations concluded.
The first was the death of a person during an interaction with a police officer in 2018. The investigation report says police responded to a call of two people fighting in an alley on Oct. 3. During the call, the person approached the officer in an “aggressive fashion” after swinging a bag with a large bottle in it at the officer. The officer pushed the person away and he stumbled, hit his head and fell. The report says the man became unconscious and was taken to the hospital, where he died on Oct. 8.
“The autopsy found that the immediate cause of death was anoxic brain injury due to or as a consequence of acute alcohol intoxication. Ground level fall, bronchopneumonia and chronic alcohol misuse were other significant conditions contributing to the death but not causally related to the immediate cause,” reads the report. “After a thorough, independent and objective investigation into the conduct of the subject officer, it is my opinion that he was lawfully placed and acting properly in the execution of his duties. There is no evidence to support any inference that police engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to an offence.”
The report says the force was “necessary and reasonable in all the circumstances, notwithstanding the tragic outcome.”
The second report released on Jan. 13 cleared a Lethbridge police officer in a case of accidental discharge of a firearm causing injury in 2020. The report says officers moved to a new make of handgun and officers were undergoing training.
During a non mandatory training session in September at the Lethbridge Police Service outdoor range. The reports says one key difference between the firearms and the old ones used, is that the trigger had to be pulled to remove the slide. Officers learned disassembly outside in case of accidental discharge. Officers went inside to learn how to clean and oil the weapons and when the officer in question realized he missed a part of the gun, he disassembled it again.
“When he pulled the trigger, as required to remove the slide, the firearm discharged a bullet that was in the chamber,” the report says. Another officer was hit in the leg and began to bleed. He was taken to the hospital and stayed the night.
“The SO (subject officer) was undergoing training on the new firearm that LPS has adopted earlier that year. One of the key differences in this make of firearm was the requirement to pull the trigger in order to remove the slide and clean it. During that training, it appears that the SO failed to follow the appropriate safety measures and accidentally discharged his firearm and the AP (affected person) was injured. While this was serious and had real consequences for the AP, it was not criminal,” the report conclusion says.