EDMONTON — Officers won't face charges after an innocent man was unknowingly shot and killed in 2022, Alberta’s police watchdog said Wednesday.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, or ASIRT, said in a report that three Edmonton officers were chasing a robbery suspect when they fired several shots, including some that went into a downtown apartment building.
The suspect was killed, and police later discovered James Hanna also died when a bullet that went through his apartment building struck him in the chest as he sat in front of his TV.
In his decision, ASIRT executive director Michael Ewenson said the man's death was "extremely unfortunate and tragic," but the officers were defending themselves from imminent harm.
“Questions such as whether the death … could have been prevented … are not within ASIRT's mandate and are issues commonly examined through another external process, such as a fatality inquiry,” he said.
The report said police were called in February 2022 to an armed robbery at a liquor store, but the suspect had already fled when the officers arrived. They found him a short time later armed with a sawed-off shotgun.
Chasing the man on foot, the officers ordered him to “drop the gun.” After running across a set of train tracks, the suspect turned toward the officers and pointed a weapon at them, said the report.
It said police fired multiple rounds at the suspect, who fell to the ground and dropped what turned out to be a BB gun. An autopsy found the man died from multiple gunshot wounds and that he was hit 12 times.
Bullets also hit the wall and ground-floor window of the nearby apartment building, said the report.
Ewenson said the officers didn’t know the suspect had a fake gun and they were justified in their use of force, given the “threat of death or grievous bodily harm.”
After the shooting, police checked the building for stray bullets.
“EPS officers observed a motionless man slumped in a chair in the ground-floor apartment,” Ewenson said. “EPS made immediate entry and noted what appeared to be one bullet hole in the centre of his chest.”
An autopsy found the 59-year-old died in hospital from a single shot to the chest. The bullet came from one of two carbine police rifles, said the report.
An examination of the apartment revealed the shots entered his apartment in multiple locations.
“It is likely that the round that had penetrated the exterior siding lower to the ground between (Hanna’s) kitchen and living room windows was the one that struck him,” Ewenson said.
He said the death was “extremely tragic,” and the officers had no intention of hitting anyone but the robbery suspect.
Ewenson also said it's possible that a bullet that went through the body of the robbery suspect is the one that struck the man in the apartment.
“As a result of the foregoing, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the offence of criminal negligence causing death was committed.”
Hanna's sister, Susan Bandola, previously told The Canadian Press her brother's death was "senseless."
He had been homeless for a time and recently moved into the apartment after becoming the building's on-site manager, she said.
"He was just getting his life together and then this happens," she said.
"Had his chair been in any other place, he wouldn't have been hit."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.
Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press