Ottawa police clear RCMP in shooting death of Rankin Inlet man

Ottawa Police Service conclude no criminal responsibility in shooting of 21-year-old Trey Angootealuk last year

There are no grounds for criminal charges in the RCMP shooting death of 21-year-old Trey Angootealuk in Rankin Inlet last November, an Ottawa Police Service investigation concluded. (File photo)

By Nunatsiaq News

There are no grounds to believe any police officer committed a crime in the shooting death of 21-year-old Trey Angootealuk in Rankin Inlet last November, an Ottawa Police Service investigation has concluded.

Angootealuk died after he was shot by an RCMP officer during what an Ottawa Police news release described as “a prolonged interaction with a male armed with a rifle and a shotgun.”

The Iqaluit RCMP division asked the Ottawa Police Service to investigate the incident that occurred over a two-day period on Nov. 6 and 7 last year.

The RCMP has an agreement with Ottawa to conduct independent investigations of major police incidents involving members of Nunavut’s RCMP.

An RCMP police report at the time said the incident began at 3:15 p.m., when officers were called to a disturbance involving “intoxicated males.”

One of the men got a rifle and was seen walking in town. He shot toward police officers, took a truck at gunpoint and drove to the town limits where he was contained for several hours, the police report at the time said.

RCMP deployed its emergency response team from Manitoba, and its officers were involved in a shooting incident involving the man.

Four Ottawa officers were dispatched to Rankin Inlet on Nov. 8 to examine whether there was any criminal responsibility on the RCMP’s part.

After interviewing seven civilian and 10 police witnesses, the Ottawa investigators said, “there were no reasonable grounds” to believe any officer committed a crime in what they called Angootealuk’s “tragic death.”

The Ottawa Police Service issued the conclusions of its investigation in a news release Friday afternoon. It also notified Nunavut’s RCMP and the territory’s Justice Department of the completion of its investigation.

The Ottawa Police Service said it would not comment further on the matter.

 

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(5) Comments:

  1. Posted by No Moniker on

    I recall when this incident took place a couple Nunatsiaq journalists (erstwhile?) appeared in the comments section of the Rankin Inlet News Facebook page, where they dropped little stink bombs over “injustice” and how badly the police had handled this.

    Of course, being advocates of social justice it was undoubtedly easy for them to see a George Floyd in all this, or some similar systemic pattern of cosmic injustice.

    Was it racism? Surely it was racism! That was the mood of the day.

    Of course, not being intimate with events on the ground we should wonder what formed the basis of these opinions? It seems that where information is obscure it is easy to be captured by reflexive imaginings.

    Something else to consider, one hand the job of a ‘journalists,’ at least as I imagine it, is to uncover the truth. Granted, in that moment they were not doing journalism, they were commenting as members of the public who happened to be journalists and had chosen to foment public anger in a ugly spectacle of rhetoric that presupposed the guilt of the police.

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  2. Posted by Truestory on

    Didn’t take long to investigate the death. Something fishy is going on here.

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    • Posted by C’mon man on

      Or the “quick” investigation that took half a year, because the evidence of what happened was clear cut.

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      • Posted by Thomas Shelby on

        What is the standard investigation time for things like this? Do you have any idea or are you just lashing out comments for the sake of commenting? Maybe get some background knowledge before commenting.

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  3. Posted by Eddy Snow on

    Bill 53 The Nunavut Police Act couldn’t come at a better time. Too many Inuit are shot every year by RCMP. Then there is an “investigation” by police to other police. After Bill 53 is in force, it will provide an independent police force to investigate “serious incidents”. This will also be good with the continuation of the body worn cameras.

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