Article content

Police in Fort McMurray were justified in shooting a man who shot his ex-wife and than fired his weapon dozens of times during a rampage in Beacon Hill in 2023. A report released Tuesday by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says the woman survived and was released from hospital later that day. Names were not mentioned in the report.

Article content

The incident began on Sept. 27, 2023 shortly after 2 p.m. when the shooter called a Victims Services Unit (VSU) support worker. She had spoke with him daily after mischief charges were laid against his ex-wife, which were withdrawn earlier that day.

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

The VSU worker described the shooter as someone who saw himself as a victim, was “blinded by selfishness,” and obsessed with his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. She encouraged him to move on and focus on co-parenting, but he broke down crying and laughing. He said he was happy with a decision he made and connected his brother to the call. He laughed and cried with “desperation in his voice.”

Shortly before 4 p.m., the shooter drove to his ex-wife’s Beacon Hill home. She was outside with her boyfriend, a neighbour and a locksmith. The woman had a court order granting her exclusive possession of the home, and the man was banned from contacting her. He pulled his SUV onto the lawn, exited with a shotgun and began firing.

Article content

The VSU worker, still on the line, thought he was killing himself until she heard screaming and gunshots. The shooter’s ex-wife had been hit with birdshot mostly to her left arm, and minor nicks to her face, neck and arms. The couple ran to a neighbour’s home for help; another neighbour with first aid training treated her injuries. The shooter told the VSU worker “it’s over” for his ex-wife and he was going to find her. The report notes his brother “wasn’t saying much” during the incident.

Meanwhile, the shooter reloaded and fired his shotgun randomly around the neighbourhood. The VSU worker spoke loudly and passed notes to her colleagues, who were contacting police.

RCMP officers located the man driving and blocked his vehicle. For three minutes, he sat in his SUV with the shotgun pointed at his head while talking on the phone. Police repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon and exit the vehicle. When he began reversing, an officer rammed the SUV, deploying its airbags and stopping it.

Article content

The man then fired a shot through the roof. Five officers immediately fired their weapons. CPR was attempted, but he was declared dead at the scene by paramedics. Police say the shooter had fired his shotgun 55 times.

 There was no way to disarm him or take him into custody when he continued firing his weapon, the report concludes, and the shooter “was a lethal threat to all of the officers present, as well as members of the community.” The officers’ decision to shoot was “proportionate to the threat of death or grievous bodily harm that he posed.”

Get the news and events of Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo in your inbox every Friday morning by signing up for our newsletter.

[email protected]

Article content