RCMP officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in a double shooting that occurred in the Smoky Lake area on August 8, 2022.
This conclusion came after the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) completed its investigation and released its report on April 30, 2025.
The investigation, which included video and scene evidence, revealed that the incident began when an RCMP officer, referred to as Subject Officer #1 (SO1), was investigating a domestic violence complaint in the Saddle Lake area. The woman, Identified as Affected Person #1 (AP1), had reportedly been assaulted and possibly held against her will by her boyfriend, Affected Person #2 (AP2).
While searching for the suspect, the officer located a vehicle associated with the boyfriend, a white Lincoln MKC. RCMP believed the couple had been involved in a criminal pursuit with police the day before in the same vehicle.
When the officer activated his emergency lights, the man drove off, with the woman in the passenger seat, a pursuit. According to the report, “The pursuit involved various speeds of up to 120 km/h,” with the man driving into oncoming traffic many times.
Despite a successful spike belt deployment to damage the vehicle’s tires, the man continued to drive erratically, forcing civilian drivers to move to the side of the road. During the pursuit, the woman reportedly fired a rifle out the window from the passenger’s sear, apparently at the officer, who was following them closely. However, the report states that “no damage or injuries resulted from the shot.”
The officer, along with two other RCMP officers, followed the couple until they reached a gas station in Smoky Lake, where the boyfriend allegedly carjacked a red truck at gunpoint. The woman voluntarily entered the truck with him. In response, the officer fried a single shot at the fleeing vehicle, striking its rear windshield. The pursuit continued through the town before officers lost sight of the truck.
A large search followed, and about an hour later, the stolen truck was found abandoned in a pea field. Emergency Response Team (ERT) officers and a police dog conducted a search in the area. They located the man standing at a distance in tall pea fields, armed with a rifle. The report notes that he was shirtless and armed with a rifle that he reportedly pointed in the general direction of police.
An officer ordered the boyfriend to drop his weapon, told him he was under arrest, and informed his colleagues that contact had been made and a firearm was involved.
Despite this, the man reportedly raised the rifle to his shoulder, an action that, according to Subject Officer #3 (SO3), believed, as per his training with the ERT, that this was an indicator that the man was preparing to shoot his gun. He believed the officers were under serious and immediate threat.
The couple has also already shot at officers, and the officer reported he was scared for his and his team’s safety.
The officers, including Subject Officers #2 and #4, “fired their respective police issued carbines in the direction of the man, causing him to fall to the ground and out of sight,” reads the report. As they approached the area, the officers discovered the woman lying in the field, having suffered a gunshot wound to her shoulder. Emergency medical aid was provided to both individuals. The woman was later confirmed dead at the scene and the man, still alive, was airlifted to the University of Alberta Hospital.
“A subsequent autopsy determined the cause of the woman’s death to be a fatal gun shot wound, which had entered the top of her right shoulder, then travelled down towards her heart and lungs. The full extent of the man’s injuries, and his perspective of this event are unknown, as he refused to speak to investigators about the incident or provide consent to access his medical records,” reads the report.
ASIRT’s executive director, Michael Eweson, concluded that the officers’ conduct was lawful. “There is no evidence to support any belief that they engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to an offence,” Ewenson stated in the report. “The woman’s death, while extremely unfortunate and tragic, does not change the analysis.”
