The province’s Serious Incident Response Team said Sunday that no new information is being released yet about a case that started out as a report of a stolen vehicle and ended in a fatal shooting by a Mountie in Truro early Saturday.
“I haven’t met the investigators, and all I can tell you is what was issued at the news conference that the RCMP held (Saturday),” SIRT director Felix Cacchione said.
At the media briefing Saturday afternoon at Nova Scotia RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth, Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said the shooting happened at about 2:30 a.m. on Willow Street after an officer from the Bible Hill detachment attempted to stop a vehicle that had been reported stolen in Cumberland County.
Clarke said the officer was standing outside his car when he was struck by the stolen vehicle. The officer then fired his service pistol at the vehicle, killing the lone occupant, a male.
The victim died at the scene of the incident, said Clarke.
Clarke would not say how many shots were fired. She also said investigators have no information indicating the driver was armed.
The officer was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the RCMP spokeswoman said.
No other police officers or civilians were injured in the incident, Clarke said.
She could not say when the stolen vehicle was first reported to police.
RCMP and Truro police were trying to locate the vehicle after it was spotted in Truro, she said.
When the fatal confrontation occurred, only the RCMP officer and the victim were in the immediate vicinity, Clarke said.
She said the shooting was not an isolated incident and that there were several attempts to locate the vehicle.
“There are several cues that the police officers may have taken from the situation that helped the police officer get to that decision,” she said.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased at this difficult time. Our thoughts and support are also with our injured member, his family and colleagues.”
Because the shooting was referred to SIRT for an independent investigation of the officer’s actions, the RCMP is making no further comment, including whether the officer made the decision to shoot on his own or consulted someone beforehand.
“The information about the decision to fire the pistol is not something I can speak about here,” she said. “That’s part of the SIRT investigation.”
The stolen vehicle, a Kia, ended up on its right side on a section of the Cobequid Trail near the Service Canada building on Willow Street. A local resident saw police officers in forensic clothing around the vehicle Saturday morning.
Willow Street between Arthur Street and McClures Mills Connector was closed until late Saturday afternoon.
“The scene has been released,” Cacchione said. “We’re still in the process of gathering information and interviewing people who may have seen anything, or did see something of value.”
He said his investigators are awaiting some test results. He said an autopsy on the driver of the car was finished late Saturday, but he didn’t have the report Sunday afternoon.
“There is still a lot of information that is coming in, and I should know more by the end of (Monday) when I meet with the investigators.”
He said anyone with information should call Truro Police or SIRT.
Chris Scoffield, an employee at Needs Convenience on Willow Street, said Saturday that a security camera at the store captured some of the incident, but he hadn’t seen what was recorded.
He said the store manager saved the footage on a thumb drive and planned to hand it over to investigators.
The store was closed Saturday morning while police combed the nearby crime scene.
“It could be just a case of someone just snapping and this is the end result,” Scoffield said. “It’s obviously shocking and a pretty big deal.”
A Facebook user posted a video early Saturday morning with the heading “Shots fired by my work. 50 bazillion cops in attendance.” The video was shot in the dark and captured several police vehicles with their emergency lights on.
A bystander at the scene Saturday afternoon said he had heard on a scanner that the incident had begun with a police chase.
It appeared the stolen vehicle smashed through a fence at the opening to the trail along Willow Street and carried on for a short distance before crashing into a fence along the Service Canada property.
Three or four posts were broken or torn from the ground and the vehicle was badly damaged on its left side. The windshield was on the ground about three metres away from the vehicle.
Police had placed more than 20 yellow incident markers at the scene.
At least 10 RCMP and Truro police vehicles had Willow Street barricaded, and Truro Fire Department trucks were also on hand, with firefighters providing traffic control.
With Harry Sullivan, Truro News and Ian Fairclough, The Chronicle Herald
