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Alberta’s police watchdog has found the Edmonton Police Service officers killed in the line of duty March 16 took no action to cause the death of the teen who ambushed them.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was directed to review the EPS investigation of the deaths of officers Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan because civilians were harmed during an interaction with police, according to a news release issued Thursday.
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Ryan and Jordan were killed while responding to a family dispute inside the Baywood Park apartments early March 16. The two constables — both in their 30s, both with young families — were repeatedly shot by 16-year-old Roman Zoltan Shewchuk who then turned the gun on himself.
The agency said its role was to perform a “narrow” review concerning use of force, and “whether any actions of the police officers led to the harm of the civilians.
During the review, EPS provided ASIRT with its complete cooperation,” the release read. “While such cooperation is both necessary and required for a proper review, that such co-operation came from people who were grieving the very recent loss of their colleagues bears mentioning.”
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The evidence ASIRT reviewed included the firearms of both officers and the teen and other physical evidence from the scene, autopsy reports, police radio transmissions and witness statements from civilians and other EPS officers.
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“Based on ASIRT’s review, the officers were clearly lawfully placed in responding to a call for assistance from a member of the public,” the statement concludes. “The officers did not engage in any use of force, nor did they engage in any action whatsoever that contributed to the harm suffered by the civilians.”
Police say killer was responsible for earlier shooting
EPS officials said at a news conference in March the officers were responding to a call from the boy’s 55-year-old mother, who said she was having trouble with her son. They were given no indication there was a firearm on scene, police said.
The mother was wounded in a struggle to disarm her son and at last report remained unresponsive in hospital.
There are also questions about the youth’s mental health. Police disclosed he had previously been involved in a mental health call, but provided no additional details. Alberta Health Services declined to comment.
Edmonton police confirmed in March investigators believe Shewchuk also perpetrated a shooting at a nearby Pizza Hut days earlier. They haven’t released any new information on their own homicide investigation into the officers’ deaths.
– with files from Jonny Wakefield
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