The actions of a police officer who fatally shot the husband of a former Okotoks councillor last summer were justified, said the head of a provincial agency investigating the incident.
Corey Lewis was shot by police after he stepped from his house carrying an object, eventually determined to be an umbrella, and crouching into a firing stance in the dark early morning hours of July 18.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigated the incident and its executive director determined the actions of the police officer were justified.
“There was no way the police could’ve known the item Mr. Lewis was holding was not a firearm and in fact was an umbrella,” said Clifton Purvis during a press conference Thursday morning in Calgary.
Corey’s wife Naydene accepted the results, however, she said she believes her husband would be alive today if police had floodlights or something to illuminate the area.
“There’s no way that, if they had used proper flood lights or used lighting at all, that this would’ve ended up this way,” she said.
Naydene said there is a streetlight on the corner of her yard, but it wouldn’t have been enough for police officers to see what was happening.
“I believe that they need to have a proper tool kit with them that includes flood lights,” she said.
According to Purvis, RCMP responded to a report of a domestic assault at the Lewis home on July 17 at about 8:15 p.m.
RCMP found Corey, who was 39 at the time, in the home and there was a report he was in possession of a 12-gauge shotgun. Officers withdrew and called in the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) from Calgary. Police also learned there were five long-guns registered to the home.
There was no one else in the home at the time as Naydene and their two children had left the home earlier in the evening.
A stand off ensued and ERT members took positions around the house at about 12:55 a.m.
Purvis said attempts to speak to Corey and to get him to respond to police were fruitless.
“There was very limited communication, police tried for a number of hours to communicate,” he said.
Police brought in loud speakers and at one point asked Corey to turn on the porch light, which Corey did but turned off soon after.
At about 1:55 a.m., he left the house and on his front yard appeared to take a shooting stance with a long object in his hands.
Purvis said Corey was carrying a dark umbrella with a silver tip, but police could not tell whether it was a firearm or not. He said Corey then knelt down, raised it to his chin and pointed it at the loudspeakers. One ERT member then turned a flashlight on Lewis and at this point Lewis turned to face the officer.
The officer fired six shots at Lewis, hitting him with three.
Purvis said police had a number of factors to consider at the time of the shooting, including the presence of guns, poor lighting and Lewis’s stance.
He said his investigation revealed Lewis was suffering from depression, but was not taking his prescribed medications.
He said they also found writings in the house indicating Lewis had intended a confrontation with police, however, he didn’t go so far as to call them suicide notes.
“I’m satisfied the deceased intended to engage police in a potentially lethal confrontation,” he said.
Naydene said her husband was under tremendous stress from working 14 to 18 hour days at his job as a truck dispatcher, but she does not believe he was suicidal.
According to Naydene, her husband was having a bad day and it spiraled out of control.
She said the situation began earlier in the day when Corey had an altercation with her son at a park behind their home and someone in the neighbourhood reported an assault to the police.
Her children then came home and Naydene took them into the garden while Corey had time to cool down. However, Corey came out of the house and another altercation occurred which ended with him punching his son.
When a police car drove by soon after, Naydene said Corey accused her of calling them and then went inside the house.
She took her son to the Urgent Care Centre and they told not to go home and not to talk to Corey.
She went to Calgary for the night and at around 2 a.m. she was asked to go to Foothills Hospital where Corey was in surgery.
“It was one bad day,” she said. “It was choices that other people made that we get to live with.”
She said Corey’s guns were not taken from where they were stored in the house.
She said Okotoks RCMP and ASIRT treated her well and she doesn’t hold any animosity to the officer involved.
“I have to keep things in perspective, that cop made a choice that he gets to live with,” she said. “Hopefully next time he’s out on a situation like this the choice he’s going to make is to make sure there’s a flood light, or to look at the bigger picture.”
She thanked the community for its support.
“Our town is incredible, it’s people are incredible,” she said.
RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said the incident was regrettable and tragic.
“This is not something that happens lightly in any community,” he said.
He said the ERT member who pulled the trigger was a veteran member of the RCMP, who is based in Calgary and he remains on active duty.
He said RCMP are reviewing the incident, and this process will continue now that the ASIRT investigation is complete. He said the RCMP will look at options including whether more lights could’ve been used at the scene.
