Family of Edmonton man killed by police questioning how it happened, lawyer says
CBC
A lawyer representing grieving family members of a 28-year-old Edmonton man who was fatally shot by a police officer nearly two weeks ago says they are angry and gathering information about what happened.
Tom Engel, a criminal defence and civil rights lawyer and frequent critic of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), said the family wants to know why a police officer shot Mathios Arkangelo while he was holding his hands in the air.
"There's absolutely no justification for using lethal force," he told CBC News in an interview on Thursday.
The province's police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), is investigating the shooting, which occurred in daylight on June 29 on a residential street in the Fraser neighbourhood in northeast Edmonton.
Others are also scrutinizing the circumstances around the death of Arkangelo, who was Black.
Community leaders and allies gathered in north Edmonton Friday night for an emergency town hall about policing and fears of police brutality toward racialized people.
Dini Arkangelo, 33, addressed the killing of his younger brother before a gathering of over two dozen community members and allies and had to pause to gain emotional support from family members.
Arkangelo said he took pride in taking care of him as an older sibling and remembered his brother's passion and drive for music.
"In my head I just see my baby brother — because that's how he'll always be to me — and then him on the ground shaking and waiting for help but nobody was there."
A crowdfunding campaign calling for justice has raised more than $17,000 to support Arkangelo's family. Engel said he had a common-law spouse and child.
A memorial set up at the intersection of Fraser Way and Fraser Vista includes a sign describing Arkangelo as innocent.
The sign says Arkangelo was a great person — caring, funny, smart, athletic and loved.
In a June 30 news release, EPS said patrol officers were dispatched to the area of 153rd Avenue and Anthony Henday Drive in the evening of June 29 for a reported single-vehicle rollover collision involving an impaired driver.
Witnesses told police, according to the news release, that the vehicle's male driver had fled the collision scene on foot.