Police shootings on Deerfoot Trail following wild car chase were justified, ASIRT concludes - Action News
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Police shootings on Deerfoot Trail following wild car chase were justified, ASIRT concludes

The woman shot in the face by Calgary police following a wild car chase in February 2014 deliberately tried to provoke the shooting, according to an investigation into the incident that found the actions of officers to be justified.

Passenger told investigators she 'wanted to die to be with the driver' who had just been shot dead by police

An investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Reponse Team has cleared the officers involved in a fatal shooting on Deerfoot Trail last February. One man was killed and a woman was seriously injured after a high speed chase. (CBC)

The woman shot in the face by Calgary police following a wild car chase in February 2014deliberately tried to provoke the shooting, according to an investigation into the incident that found the actions of officers to be justified.

The woman survived and later told investigators withthe Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) that she willfullypointed a dark object a pair of sunglasses at officers after her companion led police on a nearly hour-long chase that ended with him being shot dead.

It all started in Copperfield when police responded to a complaint about shots being fired and officers began chasing a truck that was fleeing the scene. The truck drove over sidewalks and pathways, ran red lights and intentionally rammed a number of vehicles, injuring bystanders, before making it onto Deerfoot Trail. (CBC)

The woman wanted "to make police think she had a weapon so they would shoot her as she wanted to die to be with the driver," ASIRT saidin a release.

The investigation found the driver had been using meth and hadn't slept for days leading up to the Feb. 28incident, in which he rammed several civilian vehicles with a Ford F-350 before driving the wrong way on Deerfoot Trail and being rammed by several police officers before finally being shot.

This section of Deerfoot Trail just south of the McKenzie Towne exit was closed as ASIRT investigated the shooting of two people by police officers in 2014. (Meghan Grant/CBC)

The investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of theofficers involved.

"This finding in no way diminishes the sad fact that a family has lost their loved one," ASIRT said in a release, adding that the organization "extends condolences to the family and friends of the deceased in relation to this tragic event."

The driver and the passenger, identified asJason Royand Ashley Silver, hadbeen involved in a similarpolice chase a year earlier in which an RCMPvehiclewas also rammed, and werewell-knownto police.