'A fight for my life': Court hears rare testimony from officer involved in fatal shooting
CBC
A Calgary police officer who fatally shot a man after he was attacked while working undercover became emotional in court on Tuesday as he testified at a fatality inquiry.
"I was in a fight for my life," Const. Ray Davies told the judge.
Davies killed Yacin Osman, 27, on April 9, 2018 after Osman attacked him with a knife, not knowing his victim was an undercover officer.
Davies' testimony was a rare chance to hear from an officer involved in a fatal shooting.
Davies spent an hour in the witness box answering questions from inquiry counsel Christine Nugent, Justice Indra Maharaj and CPS lawyer Annie Alport.
A fatality inquiry is underway before Maharaj makes recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future.
On the night Osman was killed, Davies and six fellow officers from the Strike Force team — a CPS surveillance unit — were working for the homicide unit on an unrelated matter.
Davies' team was tasked with watching all entry and exit points on a home in Bridgeland so other investigators could execute a covert search warrant.
From 10 to 11 p.m., Davies was assigned to watch the main door of the house.
Once he was relieved by another officer, Davies testified he drove to a nearby abandoned, fenced-in school parking lot.
Davies said he got out of the car, scanned the area and then relieved himself near the back of the vehicle.
He got back in his SUV and picked up his phone to text his wife.
Suddenly, Davies said a man wrenched his driver's door open. It was Osman, who had a knife in his hand and was shouting at the plain-clothed officer to give him money or he'd kill him.
"It was immediately apparent to me that it was an attack," said Davies.
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