Police shoot and kill man in west Edmonton
A man was shot dead by police early Thursday behind this apartment on the city's west end located at 155th Street and 100th Avenue. Photograph by Pamela Di Pinto.
By Pamela Di Pinto
WEST JASPER PLACE – A 38-year-old man is dead after a police shooting in the city’s west end early Thursday morning.
Edmonton police spokesperson Chad Orydzuk said police received a call about a “distraught” man around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. Police found the man shortly after midnight at an apartment at 155th Street and 100th Avenue, where the situation “escalated to the point of an officer-involved shooting,” said Orydzuk.
The man was taken to hospital in critical condition, where he later died of his injuries.
The victim has been identified as Kinling Robin Fire by his niece, Faye Bitternose.
Bitternose said Thursday morning that Fire had taken a number of sleeping pills on the night of the incident following an argument with his ex-girlfriend over their son.
One man who lives in the area said he heard loud bangs in the middle of the night, then saw police outside the apartment when he was taking his garbage out in the morning.
Students at Grant MacEwan University’s Centre for the Arts and Communications – located across the street from the scene of the shooting – said they also took notice of the police tape on their way in to school.
Cadence Konopaki, the campus’s Students’ Association representative, said having the shooting happen so close to campus is a reminder to students to always keep their personal safety in mind.
“We live in a city where you have to be careful and safe no matter where you are,” she said.
Donald Smith, a west-Edmonton resident, holds up a sign saying "Edmonton police need more training in dealing with distraught people then shooting them" outside the scene where a man was shot dead by police on the west end early Thursday. Photograph by Pamela Di Pinto
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), which investigates incidents or complaints involving serious injury or death from the actions of a police officer, is now looking into the shooting.
This is the second fatal police shooting of 2011. A 17-year-old boy was shot by police near Rexall Place on Feb. 5, after investigators said the teen came at officers with a knife and baseball bat.
Donald Smith, a west-Edmonton resident on-scene Thursday, said these police-involved shootings are a sign officers need more training when dealing with calls of “distraught” people.
“You don’t know if they’re mentally ill. You don’t know the whole works,” said Smith, who suffers from a mental illness himself. “They just assume, and they need more training.”
I personally find the simple minded statement “Edmonton Police need more training in dealing with distraught people then shooting them”, offending.
I am truely very sad for the person shot & the grieving Family. However, the General public has no idea what it is like for these Officers. Do you really think they want to shoot the individual? Think about it. We need to realize that there are many individuals on crazy drugs, alcohol and various mental conditions. Which often cause situation to get out of control. It is so easy to put the blame on the Officer who has a very difficult job in the Community. Judge lightly and Thank God you are never put in a situations that Officers are faced with on a daily basis. You might be surprized how you might fail the situation according to prefect standards. Thank – you Lizzie
Lizzie,
Thanks for your comment.
When police officers shoot somebody, it’s a tragic event for everyone involved. The article is a depiction of what happened that day, including the person who showed up with a sign — it wasn’t meant to be an in depth look at what it’s like for police to deal with these difficult situations.
For something closer to that, the Journal ran an excellent two-part series that examined these issues in greater depth:
Training police to confront hostile situations
‘In a gunfight, you’re facing your own death’
Archie McLean
Editor
Here’s one more link from the same series:
The human toll — What goes through an officer’s mind during a shooting and afterwards
Archie
Still doesnt make them unaccountable..police should have some kind of a humanities degree before given guns !..or criminology….socio…psych….
Seems to be a very high number of First Nations Men being shot lately….google it…another one shot in Vancouver…..Don’t like pulling the racism card…but the numbers are there !
wat ever happen to mase…..or how to use your defensive skills in hand to hand combat…just trigger happy inexperience scared officers who rely more on the gun than the other alternative…so sad….rd