There is insufficient evidence to conclude an RCMP officer meant to drive into a suspect fleeing on foot following a 2020 car chase in Red Deer, an independent investigation concluded.
Only 1.5 seconds passed between the time the suspect climbed out his car and his foot hit the ground to being clipped by a pursuing RCMP vehicle at the McKenzie Trails park on June 8, 2020, says an Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigation report released on Thursday.
An image taken from the RCMP's officer in-vehicle camera shows the suspect being hit from behind by the right front corner of the police vehicle.
Following the contact, the suspect continued running and the police officer released his dog, which caught up to the fleeing man and latched on to his clothing.
Both dog and suspect ended up in the nearby Red Deer River. A second officer saw that the suspect was in fast-flowing deep water and jumped in and pulled him to shore where he was arrested.
The incident began about 1 p.m. when a Red Deer RCMP officer tried to pull over a white Lexus GS300 with improperly tinted windows.
"The affected person (AP), who was driving the Lexus and was prohibited from driving at the time, did not stop and instead drove off at high speed," says the report.
The first officer did not pursue him but passed on a vehicle description to other officers. They spent the next 40 minutes unsuccessfully trying to pull the suspect over. A spike belt was laid and one of the Lexus's rear tires was blown out, but the suspect continued driving dangerously inside the city.
An RCMP officer with a dog joined the pursuit about 1:50 p.m. and followed the suspect into the MacKenzie Trails area next to the Red Deer River.
"The AP continued to drive very fast and dangerously. When the AP reached a dead end on a road, he drove through the trees onto another adjacent roadway."
The pursuing officer continued to follow closely, intending to intentionally hit the other vehicle to stop it.
Accelerating, the suspect went off the road on to grass, hit rocks while turning before driving through trees, across a pedestrian pathway before he was finally stopped when he hit a log.
As soon as he stopped, the suspect jumped out to make a run for it and was hit by the police vehicle that had turned slightly to the left just before impact.
The officer told an ASIRT investigator, he was trying to hit the suspect's vehicle to stop it going further when the suspect jumped out. The police officer turned to the left to avoid hitting him.
When interviewed by an ASIRT investigator, the suspect claimed he was thrown six feet in the air and both ankles were broken by the collision.
That account was "embellished," says the report. "He did not fly six feet into the air, and his claim that his broken ankles were caused by the collision are contradicted by him telling paramedics that day that he broke them stepping into a hole."
If the pursuing officer had intentionally hit the suspect that would likely be considered an unjustifiable use of force given the likelihood of grievous bodily harm or death, says the investigator.
"In this incident, however, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the (pursuing officer) intentionally contacted the AP with his vehicle.
"Given that there is insufficient evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed."