Calgary police officer charged in 2023 shooting deaths

A Calgary police officer has been charged after an investigation into the shooting deaths of two men during a slow speed pursuit in 2023. According to a release from the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), Const. Craig Stothard has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. “The evidence gathered during ASIRT’s investigation provided reasonable grounds to believe that offences had been committed,” ASIRT executive director Matthew Block said in a statement on Tuesday. “As is required by the Police Act, the investigation was forwarded to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS) to determine whether the evidence met the standard for prosecution.” ASIRT investigates any incidents where members of the public are injured or killed by police in the province. The charges have not been tested in court. Levon Boyce Jackson Fox, 39, a member of the Goodstoney First Nation in the foothills west of Calgary, was one of the men shot and killed on May 29, 2023. According to an earlier release from ASIRT, police had received multiple reports of an alleged impaired driver operating a stolen five-ton cube van. It was “driving erratically in a manner that was dangerous to the public throughout northeast Calgary.” Police first learned of the incident when a “security guard called police regarding three suspicious and impaired individuals on private property. It is believed the individuals fled the scene in the five-ton van, colliding with a building and a barricade in the area as they sped away,” according to the ASIRT release. Officers located the van heading westward at slow speed on Calgary’s Memorial Drive. “To prevent the van from entering the busy downtown core or neighbouring residential areas, multiple police units were called in to block intersections and bridges along Memorial Drive,” ASIRT said. After the vehicle made a sharp U-turn, “officers made attempts to conduct a traffic stop, which were unsuccessful. Despite the vehicle driving at low speeds at that time, the driver continued to swerve across all lanes of traffic and refused to stop,” A number of police vehicles were accompanying the vehicle, but the van was able to break containment and continued moving towards officers, according to ASIRT, and “a 13 year member of the CPS discharged their service firearm.” In one video seen by APTN News, the van is driving slowly down the street with a half dozen police cars following behind. Later in the video, the van disappears from view and shots ring out. With files from Leanne Sanders Continue Reading