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A 29-year-old man was shot by plainclothes members of the Regina Police Service (RPS), according to Saskatchewan’s civilian police watchdog’s ongoing investigation into the incident.
The Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) released more details on Tuesday about the shooting on July 18, in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood.
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According to the release, plainclothes members of the RPS were investigating a homicide and noticed the man on a bike — who they said was wanted in connection with the investigation — at around 10 a.m.
Members requested additional RPS units to the scene to help re-locate the man after contact had been lost.
Just a few minutes later, the plainclothes RPS members found the man in the alley between Garnet and Athol streets north of 8th Avenue.
“Two plainclothes members of RPS exited separate unmarked police vehicles and a confrontation took place between the male and police. During that confrontation, members issued verbal commands to the male,” the statement read.
One of the officers shot the man with a single round, according to SIRT.
EMS arrived at 10:17 a.m. and pronounced the man dead a short time later.
No further details will be released at this time.
“A final report will be issued to the public within 90 days of the investigation ending,” SIRT said.
SIRT is a civilian-led, independent body that investigates where a person has died or suffered serious injury arising from the actions of on and off-duty police officers, or while in custody of police, as well as allegations of sexual assault or interpersonal violence involving police.
Officer who shot man had 22 years in RPS
At a media event on Tuesday, Regina’s Acting Police Chief Lorilee Davies was questioned about the incident and why it took some time for more details to be released.
“We’ll do a preliminary release, as we did on Friday (July 18), with just sort of the information to let people know that that’s happened,” she explained.
“Once we notify SIRT, and they say we’re taking over jurisdiction of this investigation, all media has to flow through them.”
Davies said RPS couldn’t provide further information about the incident as it is now in the hands of SIRT.
“SIRT is still relatively new in the province, and so it is the way that we need to do business going forward,” she said.
“Certainly we respect that and understand the process that needs to take place.”
According to Davies, the two officers involved both work in the plainclothes investigative unit.
The officer who shot the man is a 22-year member of the service.
Davies said that the officer is currently off work.
“We have a very strong and robust policy when it comes to incidents like that,” she said. “They’re working with SIRT in terms of interviews and collecting information.”
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