‘No grounds to believe an offence was committed’ during 2023 Estevan police shooting: SIRT

A Saskatchewan police watchdog agency says there are no grounds to believe a crime was committed when an Estevan police officer shot and killed a 19-year-old man inside police headquarters in 2023.

According to the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), the man who was killed allegedly grabbed a police officer’s gun and shot the officer in the abdomen just before the fatal shooting.

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• SIRT probing incident after Estevan police officer, suspect seriously hurt

SIRT said the incident began with a homicide investigation on Nov. 1, 2023. Police got a call from a home in Estevan where SIRT said a woman – the mother of the man later killed by police – had been stabbed. She died in hospital a short time later, and police arrested her son as part of a homicide investigation. Police previously identified the woman as 46-year-old Karie Ann Guillas.

The 19-year-old, who a family member previously identified as Justice Guillas, was placed in an observation room and given a chance to call a lawyer.

Despite being described as an “observation room,” SIRT said the room “was not equipped with video monitoring so as to preserve the right of an accused to speak privately with counsel.”

The 19-year-old was given a change of clothes, as SIRT said the clothing he was wearing at the time of his arrest “was covered in blood.” But while he was changing, SIRT said an officer who was in the room with him reached across a table to retrieve an item, exposing his holstered pistol in the process.

SIRT said a struggle ensued, and the 19-year-old man fired a single shot, striking the officer in the abdomen and causing a serious injury. The man later fired a second shot, striking a wall, SIRT said.

“Following the shot, as the affected person still retained control of the gun and began to lower it from its raised angle, the SO drew his service pistol and fired two shots from the hip in close succession, striking the affected person in the torso,” SIRT said in a statement.

SIRT does not include names in its public reports, instead referring to the 19-year-old man as “the affected person” and the second officer in the room, who allegedly shot him, as “the Subject Officer.”

SIRT said the 19-year-old was handcuffed and asked an officer to “just finish me” or said words to that effect. First aid was provided to both victims, SIRT said, and the man was pronounced dead during surgery at the Regina General Hospital that afternoon.

The officer who was shot was released from hospital “after several days,” SIRT added. He was later identified as Sgt. Braden Lonsberry.

The police watchdog agency said the officer who fired the two fatal shots “had an undeniably reasonable fear of death or grievous bodily harm, for both himself and (the officer who had allegedly been shot).”

As a result, SIRT said there are no grounds to believe a crime was committed by the officers involved, and the case will not be referred to Saskatchewan’s attorney general.

SIRT emphasized that it does not automatically accept police evidence at face value, and scrutinizes the claims of police.

“In situations such as this, it is important to recognize that SIRT’s investigation does not automatically accept this evidence without challenge, and that the evidence provided by the directly-involved police officers is scrutinized to the same degree as any other evidence gathered during the course of the investigation, and steps are taken to determine whether that evidence is consistent with, corroborated by, or contradicted by any other available eyewitness, or physical or forensic evidence,” the agency explained.

“In this case, significant corroboration of the direct versions obtained from the (the two officers) is provided by the results of the forensic examination, the results of the DNA analysis of (the officer’s) pistol, and, unfortunately, the serious injury sustained by (the other officer) during the incident.”

While SIRT’s report concluded that there was no evidence to indicate a crime was committed by the officer who fired the fatal shots, it did not comment on best practices for police when dealing with prisoners or whether any police policies were violated when the officer brought a weapon into a room containing an unrestrained homicide suspect.

SIRT’s full report can be read on the Government of Saskatchewan’s website.