Halifax Regional Police officers shot and killed a man in Dartmouth over the weekend, and there are few details available about the incident.
In a news release, the police said that at about 9am on Saturday, they “responded to a weapons incident involving a man with a weapon in the area of a sports field near Micmac Boulevard and Woodland Avenue.”
“While attempting to arrest the man, he confronted the officers with the weapon, and officers discharged service weapons. The man was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced deceased,” the police said.
The province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) is investigating the incident, but director Alonzo Wright had little to say on Monday.
“We’re investigating that, as you know. And that’s pretty much what I can tell you,” Wright said in an interview.
“We anticipate that there will be an autopsy that will be will be performed. And that’s really all I can tell you right now.”
Wright wouldn’t say whether the man’s next of kin has been notified or what kind of weapon he allegedly had.
“I can’t speak to that at this point because it’s an ongoing investigation, as I’m sure you can appreciate. Wouldn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize that investigation,” Wright said.
“Once the facts are collected, I’ll be able to say more, I hope.”
Witness heard three shots
At the scene of the shooting on Monday, there was some police tape leftover, but no other signs of what had happened.
A man at the ball field who asked not to be named told the Halifax Examiner he witnessed the shooting.
The man lives nearby, and said he walks the perimeter of the ball field next to the parking lot daily. He was on his walk at about 9am on Saturday.
He said an officer pulled into the parking lot at the ball field and then back out and blocked the road. That officer pulled out a rifle. Another officer showed up right after.
“And he jumps out with his gun out,” the man said.
A third officer arrived from the other side of the field, and also drew a pistol.
The man kept walking onto the sidewalk on the other side of Micmac Boulevard, toward the soccer field.
He saw a man wearing a winter coat with the hood up. The man put his hands up, and then lowered them. He didn’t see a weapon.
The officers each fired a shot, three total, the man said, with the officer with the rifle shooting first.
There were eventually 20 or more police vehicles on scene, the man said.
The man shot was standing next to a silver vehicle, the man said, and it was there most of the day. The vehicle was removed from the scene around 5pm, and police were there until 7pm, the man said.
Wright said HRP isn’t doing the forensic work on the investigation.
“I can tell you that is our policy not to have the agency that’s involved in the incident to conduct any of the forensics or analysis,” Wright said.
He wouldn’t put a timeline on the work.
“We think that the public would want a thorough and complete investigation, and however long that would take, that’s just the nature of the job,” Wright said.
This is the second man shot and killed by Halifax Regional Police in the last year. In August 2022, they shot a 59-year-old man in Dartmouth. SIRT has not completed that investigation.