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• Edmonton Police sued after officer allegedly kicks Indigenous youth in the head

  At about 4:15 a.m. officers responded to a trouble not known call at a home in the area of 62 Avenue and 178 Street with reports that a fight involving a weapon was taking place inside. During the search, police asked Pacey Dumas and his brother Blair, who is a year older, to step outside. Both complied. Blair was placed in handcuffs, while Pacey was ordered laid face down on the sidewalk with his hands out. Suddenly and without warning (Todd; the officer) moved swiftly to Pacey and while in motion kicked Pacey in the right side of his head with such force Pacey was immediately rendered unconscious and bleeding, After the alleged assault, Pacey was dragged by two unknown officers to a spot two houses away. It claims none of the officers who attended the scene gave Pacey medical attention.
• Officers kill woman wielding toy gun

  Around 2pm on January 16, 2010, 911 dispatch received a call from Bernadette Auger (48) over a dispute she was having with her adult sons, requesting police presence, but partway into the call Ms. Auger's common-law partner, George Coward, told the dispatcher that Ms. Auger was drunk, and not to send officers, then hung up the phone. Dispatch called the number back and informed Mr. Coward that police were en route. When the two dispatched officers arrived at the walk-up apartment at 119th Avenue and 84th Street, they went inside, where they encountered Ms. Auger on a stair landing, holding what appeared to be a gun (but was later determined to be a toy Airsoft gun painted black). Ms. Auger pointed the "gun" at the officers and followed them down the stairs and outside as they retreated from the building, but went back inside after the officers crouched behind a vehicle to call for assistance. While inside, Ms. Auger called 911 again, and had a conversation with the operator in which she asked to speak to the police outside, apologized, and indicated she had a gun. She then went back outside, where there were now at least 5 police officers including a Dog Master with a police dog. When she came outside, the Dog Master Detective Kassian determined she was not a serious threat and stood from cover to release the dog. Ms. Auger saw him stand up and raised the "gun" in his direction. While the officers called for Ms. Auger to drop the gun, the police dog "got confused" (per the provincial fatality inquiry) and bit another police officer on the leg. In the Fatality Inquiry, the possible reasons given for the dog's confusion were that Ms. Auger was not moving, which is not the scenario police dogs are trained for, and that Ms. Auger was wearing a white t-shirt against the backdrop of snow, so the dog was unable to focus on her. Immediately after Ms. Auger raised the "gun", Detective Kassian raised his own service weapon and shot her in the head. Another officer stationed across the road, Constable Bondarchuk, shot Ms. Auger in the neck simultaneously. Ms. Auger was killed instantly, with both shots occurring near simultaneously. A third and fourth officer attempted to fire on Ms. Auger at the same time but were interrupted by the police dog attack. In the following investigation, it was determined that Ms. Auger was taking several prescription medications for chronic pain and other issues that, combined with alcohol, produced a sedative effect that likely altered her behaviour. Per the Fatality Inquiry, "Mr. Coward, in his interview with the police, believed that Ms. Auger was attempting to commit suicide by forcing the police to shoot her. This opinion is supported by the fact that she had tried to commit suicide in the past, she was under chronic pain due to injuries suffered in the car accident six years before, she sent him away after calling 911 and after knowing that the police were on the way, she knew the toy gun she carried could be confused for a real firearm, she met the police in the stairwell and pointed the gun at the officers, she pursued them down the stairwell, she pursued the officers out of the building, when she couldnt see them, she called 911 and asked the operator to send the police to her suite, she then pursued the police out of the building again, raising the gun directly at Detective Kassian from a distance of seven meters" (Report to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Public Fatality Inquiry, January 30, 2013). ASIRT was directed to investigate the incident and in September 2010 issued a finding that the officers acted lawfully and their actions were justified. The decision of the Public Fatality Inquiry held in 2012 was that "In this case, there was nothing that the police could have done differently when faced with these events. Accordingly, there are no recommendations to make for the prevention of similar deaths." Ms. Auger suffered from serious chronic pain and brain damage from a car accident six years before the incident, which were cited as relevant factors in the course of events. Per ASIRT director Clifton Purvis' comment on their findings, police dogs becoming confused and attacking officers is not uncommon in heated situations (Edmonton Journal, Sept 16, 2010).
• Man fatally shot by police during attempted robbery

  Mike Bronaugh, also known as Mike Grisch, was fatally shot by two Edmonton Police Service officers responding to an armed robbery in progress call at the Canadian Western Bank at South Edmonton Common on December 11, 2012. Police were called around 2 p.m. to the Canadian Western Bank located at 21st Avenue and 99th Street where they found a man in his mid-twenties with a handgun. According to the evidence presented in the subsequent fatality inquiry, Mr. Bronaugh had made an appointment at the branch, but after sitting down with an employee, he demanded cash, then reached into his coat and "told her that she had twenty-eight seconds to produce the money, that he had a gun and would start shooting someone" (2016 Public Fatality Inquiry). The employee told Mr. Bronaugh it would take time to get the money and left to go to the bank's vault. The employee informed her coworkers and manager of the situation, and a supervisor placed a call to 911. When EPS arrived on scene, Mr. Bronaugh walked towards the bank entrance where two officers had entered with weapons drawn. According to an eyewitness and bank employees, Mr. Bronaugh drew a revolver only after the police entered the building. In the summary of evidence received by the fatality inquiry, one eyewitness (another customer in the bank) and the bank employees did not describe whether Mr. Bronaugh raised the gun; one responding police officer, Cst. McCracken, described Mr. Bronaugh as raising his gun toward the other customer and bank employees, while the other officer, A/Sgt Zielie, described Mr. Bronaugh bringing the gun up and appearing to point it at his own head, then turning to face the other people in the bank. Both officers described shouting at Mr. Bronaugh to drop the weapon, then firing their own guns - Cst. McCracken four shots from a rifle and A/Sgt Zielie two from a pistol, all of which struck Mr. Bronaugh. Mr. Bronaugh was taken to hospital and treated for his injuries, but died the following day with a medical cause of death "Multiple gunshot wounds". Although security camera footage from the incident was presented as evidence in the fatality inquiry, the report does not describe the footage or clarify the contradicting statements on where Mr. Bronaugh pointed the gun once the officers entered the bank. In a media interview with the Edmonton Sun, Mr. Bronaugh's mother stated she believed he was in the process of raising his hands above his head to surrender. Hospital records submitted to the inquiry for Mr. Bronaugh indicated he was receiving treatment for cancer and having seizures but did not indicate mental health concerns; in a media interview with CBC, Mr. Bronaugh's father stated that he was suffering depression and may have wanted the police to shoot him. In the fatality inquiry, A/Sgt Zielie stated that his decision to park his marked police cruiser in front of the bank window would not have been the appropriate practice had he known that Mr. Bronaugh was still inside the bank, which he believed "increased the danger to the people within the bank, decreased any tactical advantage the police had in responding" (2016 Public Fatality Inquiry). However, based on the testimony of both involved officers, an expert police witness from Calgary Police Service, and the statements made by the bank employees about their training on bank robberies, the inquiry concluded that it was extremely unusual that Mr. Bronaugh did not try to leave the bank quickly, and so no recommendations were made.