ÎYÂRHE NAKODA – A public inquiry report released over seven years after a Mînî Thnî man was shot and killed by RCMP and one year after a formal provincial court inquiry was held made no recommendations to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.
Ralph Stephens, who was 27 at the time of his death, was fatally shot by an RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) officer Jan. 7, 2017, on a rural property in Mînî Thnî.
RCMP, the agency’s Major Crimes Unit and ERT members arrived at the residence to arrest Stephens, his brother John Stephens, and Deangelo Powderface, as suspects in the killing of Lorenzo “Billy” Bearspaw.
Bearspaw had been reported missing two days after he was last seen leaving a New Year’s Eve party on Jan. 1 in a vehicle with three other men.
Police arrived at the rural residence on Îyârhe Nakoda First Nation to execute a search warrant the day after Bearspaw’s body was found, with evidence of blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds.
Two of the three suspects were arrested without incident, with Powderface later turning himself in, but Stephens was killed after first shooting at police in the basement of the rural home and “narrowly missing ERT members,” and then exiting a window with a firearm and pointing it in the direction of an officer.
“The root cause of death in this case was the decision made by Ralph Stephens to resist arrest using force and to exit the residence armed in a manner that presented a lethal threat to Constable [Michael] Wallace,” wrote provincial court Justice Gord Wong in the public inquiry report.
“There is no recommendation that comes to mind that would have controlled that behaviour and prevented his death.”
An Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigation following the incident in 2017 noted Wallace yelled commands at Stephens to drop his weapon – a loaded shotgun that was in forward firing position – that were ignored. A woman had also just exited the basement window prior to Stephens and complied with police commands.
“Cst. Wallace described to investigators that Ralph Stephens moved towards him carrying a shotgun at waist level that was pointed towards him. Cst. Wallace feared for his safety and the safety of [the woman] and responded by firing a single shot from his Colt 300 Blackout sniper rifle at Ralph Stephens striking him in the torso, causing him to collapse to the ground,” states the ASIRT report.
Emergency first aid was administered to Stephens on scene and he was transported to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, where he later died of his injuries.
Wallace was cleared by ASIRT in Stephens’ death and a public fatality inquiry was ordered under the Fatality Inquiries Act to make potential recommendations to prevent similar deaths.
A fatality inquiry was held over three days in provincial court in Calgary in May 2023 and heard from eight witnesses, including Wallace, four other police officers, an ASIRT investigator, retired RCMP member and the woman who had exited the rural home’s basement window the night of the shooting.
The inquiry focused on the warrant execution plan and tactics used by police, and reviewed findings from the ASIRT investigation and an internal RCMP review that was conducted by a retired RCMP Inspector not affiliated with Alberta RCMP’s “K” division.
The ASIRT report made note on the way the arrest warrant was executed.
It stated additional consideration to use a trained negotiator and previous surveillance of the residence may have “minimized the risk to enter the home not only to the civilian occupants within the house but the police officers themselves.”
The sergeant in charge of the arrest warrant operation, which was approved by a supervising inspector, indicated these considerations were not an option and that previous experience suggested surveillance would have been detected by residents and reported to those being surveilled.
“As for the use of a trained negotiator, this was not possible as ERT did not have a telephone number for the accused and therefore no way to communicate,” the public inquiry report states of the ASIRT critique.
The report notes that crisis negotiator members had been engaged, however.
As for the internal review conducted by a former RCMP inspector, Wong noted the retired officer’s critiques of the operation were described as “administrative in nature or procedural, designed to ensure the best plan is developed for an operation involving ERT.”
This included RCMP Major Crimes Unit requesting assistance from but not providing a formal risk assessment document to ERT.
“He acknowledged that the warrant execution plan was appropriate given the circumstances and had no recommendations to prevent similar deaths in future. He testified that these administrative recommendations would not control the subject’s (Ralph Stephens) behaviour and that is what led to his death,” wrote Wong in the public inquiry report.
“On reviewing the circumstances of this incident, I have no recommendations to make to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future. The ASIRT recommendations or observations regarding surveillance and use of a negotiator were not practical in the circumstances. The independent RCMP review disclosed administrative deficiencies in planning but concluded the operational plan devised was sound and executed properly.”
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
