Watchdog agency clears Regina cops in fatal 2024 police shooting on Garry Street

A police watchdog agency says there are no reasonable grounds to believe an officer committed an offence during a fatal police shooting in Regina in 2024.

According to the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team, a civilian-led agency that investigates cases of serious injury, death or interpersonal violence caused by police officers, the case began on May 18, 2024, when the Regina Police Service got a report saying a resident on Garry Street had been damaging his neighbours’ property, including removing part of a fence with a chainsaw “in order to enter their yard.”

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The agency’s report indicated that the man had previously been convicted for assault with a weapon, and had allegedly threatened to shoot a trespasser in 2020. Police learned the man held a gun permit and owned at least one registered firearm, a handgun.

The man, who was ultimately the victim of the police shooting, was not named in the report, and was instead referred to only as “the affected person.”

According to the watchdog agency’s report, police went to the man’s home to arrest him on May 19, but he allegedly threatened to shoot the officers and refused to come outside.

Police surrounded the home and called in the SWAT team for backup while working to obtain a warrant to enter the house, the report indicated.

The report indicated that police were able to contact the man by phone during the standoff.

“… the affected person complained about his neighbours, and stated that he was prepared to take matters into his own hands and take drastic measures then hung up the call,” the report read.

“A subsequent attempt to engage the affected person by phone concluded when the affected person informed police that he was going to load his guns, and that they could come in and get him.”

According to the Serious Incident Response Team, the man came outside at about 3:35 p.m., while the home was surrounded by police, and fired a handgun, striking a police vehicle. Two SWAT team officers each fired a single shot at the man, with one of them hitting him in the torso and dropping him to the ground.

Police then drove an armoured vehicle onto the lawn of the home and pulled the man away so he could receive first aid, the report indicated, but he was pronounced dead six minutes after leaving the house.

“While evidence gathered during the course of SIRT’s investigation gives rise to the possibility that the affected person’s gunfire may have constituted an attempt to provoke police action rather than an immediate attempt to injure or kill a police officer or civilian, given the totality of the circumstances and the speed at which those actions occurred, there was no reasonable way for police to have determined the affected person’s true intentions, or any realistic opportunity to do so,” the Serious Incident Response Team wrote in its report.

“With all factors considered, including the nature of the threat presented by the affected person’s actions, the force applied by the Subject Officers during the incident falls within the range protected by law, and provides no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed by any police officer during the incident.”