A Calgary police officer has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Alberta’s police watchdog said on Tuesday that Const. Craig Stothard had been charged on Monday, following its recommendation.
ASIRT investigated the May 29, 2023, incident that resulted in two individuals being shot and killed.
“A Calgary Police Service officer shot at occupants of a van on Memorial Drive N.E. following a slow-speed pursuit,” ASIRT said in a release.
“Two of the occupants were struck and later pronounced deceased.
“The evidence gathered during ASIRT’s investigation provided reasonable grounds to believe that offences had been committed.”
On May 29, 2023, police said they received reports of a five-ton cube van being driven erratically and dangerously throughout northeast Calgary.
Police said they located the van travelling westbound on Memorial.
Cruisers were stationed at various intersections and bridges along Memorial Drive to prevent the cube van from entering the downtown core or neighbouring residential areas.
Cruisers with sirens on and lights flashing tailed the vehicle at slow speeds when police said it made a sharp U-turn onto eastbound Memorial at the intersection with Edmonton Trail N.E.
Police said as the van approached St. George’s Drive N.E., officers made attempts to stop the driver but were unsuccessful.
According to police at the time, the driver continued to swerve across all lanes of traffic and refused to stop.
Police said attempts were made to contain the vehicle, but the van was able to break containment and continued moving toward officers, and one officer discharged their service firearm.
Two people were pronounced dead, and a third was taken into custody.
No officers or civilians were injured.
The deceased have been identified as Levon Fox and Wesley Davidson.
The third person has been identified as Fox’s brother, Dennis Wildman.
Fox’s family said in a statement to The Canadian Press on Tuesday that they were relieved to see charges laid after “two years of grief, questions and personal suffering.”
They described the incident as an act of police brutality.
“The (Calgary police) officer that killed my son needs to be held accountable through the judicial process and does not warrant preferential treatment in the justice system,” said Fox’s mother, Lena Wildman, in the statement.
While Stothard was not named in 2023, police said then it was a 13-year member of the force who opened fire.
Stothard appeared in the Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday.
He is not currently in custody.
Don MacLeod, Stothard’s lawyer, told CTV News his client “maintains his innocence.”
He said “a vigorous defence” is being planned.
In a recorded message posted online on Tuesday, the police service’s Chief Katie McLellan acknowledged the extreme seriousness of the nature of the charges.
“We recognize the profound impact that this incident has had and will continue to have on all involved,” she said.
“On behalf of the Calgary Police Service, I want to extend my condolences to all involved family members.”
McLellan said the force has confidence the case will be handled by the criminal justice system with the seriousness and fairness it deserves.
“We are committed to listening, learning and taking every possible step to understand,” she said.
“We remain committed to serving our community with humility.”
Experts’ takes on 2023 incident
In the aftermath of the 2023 incident, Tom Engel, Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association policing committee chair, said he didn’t understand what circumstances there were that justified lethal force.
“Frankly, I was somewhat shocked that this would have led to killing two people,” he said.
Engel takes on many policing cases and said lethal force cannot be used unless it’s necessary to protect lives.
“Nothing that I’ve read or seen indicates that there was that danger,” he said.
“The slow, meandering of the van—there was no risk to anybody.”
But Kelly Sundberg, Mount Royal University criminologist, said in the aftermath of the 2023 incident that a large van can be considered a weapon.
“If a cube van is being used erratically and is endangering the lives of people, the police have an obligation to end that threat,” he said.
Sundberg said police must respond to threats like this in a reasonable and proportionate manner.
“This is a really, really tragic situation where police, their options for ending this, became more and more limited as time progressed.”
Engel, at the time, called for police to release video of the incident to the public.
“If this happened in the United States, by now, in most cases, it would’ve all been released to the public, and that’s a real problem with transparency and accountability,” he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
