‘Very lucky today:’ Shot Calgary officer stable in hospital

CALGARY — A Calgary police officer was in hospital Tuesday after being shot by an armed suspect in the city’s northeast.

Police said the male officer was stable and a lone suspect was found dead, but few details of what occurred were released.

A long line of police cars, including a large armoured SUV used by the tactical unit, rumbled out of the residential neighbourhood of Abbeydale by mid-afternoon.

“I can tell you … we’re very lucky today because he took two rifle rounds, but he’s in stable condition,” said Les Kaminski, president of the Calgary Police Association. “So far, so good.”

Kaminski said he could not reveal the officer’s identity.

“I’ve talked to the parents and they would prefer his name not be released.”

He said the shooting is a reminder of what police face on a daily basis.

“This is what the work entails — dangerous people that we have to deal with that the rest of society don’t want to deal with.”

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates police conduct, said it was reviewing the shooting.

“No further information is available at this time,” it posted on Twitter.

Police initially called it an “active situation” involving a firearm and advised people in the neighbourhood to stay in their homes. That order was lifted later in the day.

In 2015, Edmonton police Const. Daniel Woodall was shot and killed while trying to serve an arrest warrant at the home of a man under investigation for anti-Semitic bullying. Bullets that ripped through the front door also hit a second officer, but he survived.

Soon after, the house went up in flames and police found Norman Raddatz, a 42-year-old refrigerator repairman, dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Raddatz had railed online about police, courts and paying taxes.