Alberta RCMP officers cleared in fatal shooting after front-end loader rampage
EDMONTON — Alberta’s police watchdog says two RCMP officers were justified when they shot and killed a man who was on a rampage with a stolen front-end loader and tried to use the massive machine to crush a police car with an officer inside against a tree.
“Operating this front-end loader in the manner he did resulted in it becoming a weaponized 35,000-pound blunt instrument that was much more difficult for officers to stop or contain than any other standard vehicle,” Susan Hughson, executive director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, said Monday.
“The man also attempted to lower the bucket of the front-end loader down onto the roof of the vehicle but was unable to do so because the bucket got wedged … in the tree.”
The unidentified 37-year-old man who died Dec. 25, 2015, in Red Deer, Alta., was wanted on suspicion of sex assault and attempted murder.