Two central Alberta RCMP officers who fatally shot a teenage boy after he called 911 won’t be charged, Alberta’s police watchdog has determined.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) released its final report into the death of Hoss Lightning, 15, on Thursday.
The teen was from Samson Cree Nation, one of four First Nation communities that make up Maskwacis in central Alberta.
Lightning died in in the city of Wetaskiwin, which is just down the road from Maskwacis, about 70 km south of Edmonton.
Wetaskiwin RCMP officers responded around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, after receiving a 911 call from someone who said he was being followed by people who were trying to kill him after the teen reportedly threatened the Hell’s Angels.
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Lightning has been reported missing by Edmonton police after disappearing from his group home in the city. He had a cognitive delay, ASIRT said, and operated at the level of a nine-year-old.
An undated photo of Hoss Lightning holding a photo of his late grandfather Hoss Saddleback, after whom he was named.
Supplied
ASIRT said an RCMP officer found Lightning near a McDonalds at 56th Street and 37A Avenue in Wetaskiwin.
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The teenager said he was scared and had weapons, including a machete and knife, that he voluntarily handed over to the Mountie while holding on to his backpack.
Lightning told the officer he had smoked meth the day before but was sober at this time, ASIRT said. Staff at the shelter in the city said the teen had recently purchased something (likely illicit drugs) from someone in a neighbouring encampment the previous day.
ASIRT said the officer spent over half an hour with the teen making calls to find a family member who could take Lightning in for the night, including his grandmothers down the road in Maskwacis, but no one picked up their phone.
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Eventually, the officer told Lightning because he was considered a high-risk youth who was missing from his group home, he had to take the boy into custody so he could be returned there.
ASIRT said it was at that point the boy’s demeanour changed from “from being agreeable to having (the officer) search the bags he was carrying, to overtly telling (the officer) he could not search the bags even though (Lightning) was about to be apprehended.”
The boy said he didn’t want to go back to his group home.
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They said the boy refused to let an officer search his backpack and tried to intimidate an officer. The teen put his hand in the bag and pointed it towards the Mountie, who feared the teen had a gun concealed inside it.
Lightning then ran away towards a nearby field while the Mountie alerted his coworkers, and other officers began heading in that direction to provide backup.
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The original officer found Lightning walking in tall grass and ASIRT said the teen refused commands to stop and show his hands, but the teen ignored and kept “walking with purpose towards him with the backpack once again held straight out with a hand inside it.”
A second officer rolled up as Lightning reportedly kept walking towards the cops while holding his backpack with his hand in it.
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Investigators said there was a confrontation and the boy was shot in the chest, and was pronounced dead in hospital.
ASIRT said while Lightning intimated that he possessed a firearm during his interactions with police, a subsequent search of the backpack found no firearm.
When a person pretends to point a gun at a police officer and that officer reasonably believes that a gun is being pointed at them, ASIRT said the officer does not need to wait to confirm their belief.
“Based on the various videos, there is no doubt that (Lightning) intended (the officer) to believe he was pointing a gun at him,” ASIRT said.
ASIRT concluded while the events of the night were tragic, that does not make them criminal.
“Based on the evidence collected in a comprehensive investigation, the defences available to the subject officers under ss. 25 and 34 of the Criminal Code will apply. There are therefore no reasonable grounds to believe that either subject officer committed a criminal offence.”
The shooting drew calls for police reform and better de-escalation training from politicians and leaders from Samson Cree Nation, where the boy was from.
A statement issued by Samson Cree Nation Coun. Izaiah Swampy-Omeasoo, on behalf of the boy’s family, said ASIRT’s final report was biased and contradictory, but not surprising.
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“A systemic-racist body, investigating another systemic-racist body will produce the same results: injustice in all its form,” Swampy-Omeasoo said.
“With continued hurt for the family, a relived nightmare, and a loss of trust in the bodies that are meant for public safety, accountability and service.”
— with files from Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press
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