Family and friends console each other at a vigil for a woman and her 11-year-old child killed outside a school in Edmonton on May 6, 2023.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Alberta’s police watchdog says it was necessary for police to shoot a man who stabbed a mother and her child outside a school last year.
Carolann Robillard and her 11-year-old were killed in what Edmonton police called a random attack.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says the man was still a lethal threat almost as soon as police arrived at the scene, wielding two knives and using bear spray as he approached officers.
The agency says there are no grounds to believe the officers committed a criminal offence by shooting the man.
Police have said the man was known to the force, had mental-health issues and was the sole person responsible for the stabbing deaths.
An autopsy found he had fentanyl, methamphetamine and cannabis in his system at the time.