EDMONTON – There will be no criminal charges against an Edmonton police officer who shot a knife-wielding man twice outside a shopping mall last summer.
Percy Davis was 26 when police shot him in the lower abdomen and neck. He survived, but reportedly lost the use of a lung and an arm.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigated the shooting and released its results Wednesday.
The investigation found that Davis approached police with a large butcher knife and he failed to drop the weapon when told to do so. The officer, who was not armed with a Taser, unsuccessfully used pepper spray on the man, then opened fire.
“The actions of the police officer were justified in all the circumstances,” said Clifton Purvis, the executive director of the team.
Purvis said the investigation took 11 months and the decision not to press charges was made after a review by the Justice Department.
A total of 39 bystanders were interviewed, along with numerous police officers and seven professional witnesses.
“We obtained very good co-operation from the witnesses and when you review all their recollections of what they believed they viewed, you can have a very good picture of what happened.”
After the shooting, Davis’s parents had expressed outrage at police, claiming officers should have been carrying Tasers to subdue their son.
Purvis couldn’t comment if whether a Taser would have changed the outcome.
Davis’s father, who is an evangelical pastor, described his son as a loner who has grappled with anger management issues in the past.
The family also criticized the speed at which information was released.
The shooting occurred just four blocks from the family’s home, but the family said they only learned about what happened while watching the television news that night.
Davis has been charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon. A preliminary inquiry has been set for March 2010.
A civil suit is also pending on this case, Purvis said.
