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Jeanette Lapointe | latest update

A woman was taken to hospital after being shot by a police officer in the Inglewood neighbourhood northwest of downtown.

A "Dick and Jane" car was dispatched to a three-storey apartment building at 12402 115 Avenue after a report of a landlord-tenant dispute came in at about 7:30 p.m. on July 6th, 2007.

When police arrived, a woman came out of a top-floor suite and approached the female officer in a "threatening manner" with a knife.

The male constable then fired a single shot at the woman. Witnesses said the bullet struck her in the abdomen.

A dozen marked vehicles descended on the scene with sirens filling the quiet summer air as uniformed officers responded to the "10-13" radio call.

Several unmarked cars carrying plain-clothed detectives soon arrived.

As the injured woman was being wheeled away on an EMS stretcher she continued putting up a fuss, such that two officers were forced to restrain her as she was placed in a waiting ambulance.

The shooting victim was last reported to be in critical but stable condition at the University of Alberta Hospital with a wound that was not considered life threatening.

As is the case with all police-involved shootings, an outside agency was called in to investigate the matter. Edmonton's RCMP "K" Division was contacted to handle the case.

Edmonton police said the Alberta solicitor general's department would also be notified.

Acting police Chief Norm Lipinski said events unfolded rapidly for the two "pretty junior constables" involved.

"The female person inside the suite grabbed a knife, a kitchen knife, and came at the female constable.

"The male constable that was with her, fearing for the female constable's life, drew his firearm and discharged it one time.

"It's an unfortunate and terrible event and the dynamics of the altercation happened very quickly, within nanoseconds," Lipinski said.

"The two constables are doing as well as can be expected. Police officers responding to calls like this are looking for a peaceful and verbal resolution and they are very well trained to do that."

A police spokesman at the scene described to media how the officers addressed the situation.

"That's a tough call for anyone to make.

"This is something that's a last resort. I suspect none of our officers want to be ever put in that position.

"It's something they are trained for and they will get the appropriate counselling. There will be counselling provided to our members just to get through this," said the spokesman.

There was no indication of what level of body armor the officers were wearing.

A handful of police cars remained at the scene overnight as the investigation continued with homicide detectives taking the lead. An RCMP officer was also on hand.

On July 7th RCMP confirmed they were accepting the responsibility of investigating the actions of the Edmonton Police Service officers and all circumstances involved.

At a media news conference Cpl. Wayne Oakes stated the investigation would "leave no stone unturned.

"Everything will be looked at. We have a responsibility to exercise absolute diligence and we have given the Edmonton Police Service and Albertans a commitment to do that."

Oakes said the matter would be investigated by as many officers as required, would take as long as was warranted, and would be thorough and independent.

Once complete, results of the investigation would be forwarded to the Attorney General's office for review and subject to recommendations by Crown prosecutors.

"They would look at that and determine whether any charges are warranted or if the report proves that the investigation was justified," said a spokesman for the Solicitor General's office. The Crown office reviews all police cases that involve an officer using a firearm.

The report would also be forwarded to the Chief of the Edmonton Police Service, Mike Boyd.

No date was set for the report and Oakes told one reporter he was not in a position to characterise specifics of the investigation.

The RCMP spokesman said that investigations of this nature are mandated by protocols still in development. In the last two years it had become customary that such investigations are turned over to a police service not directly involved in the incident.

Oakes recalled the last time the federal agency was involved with the Edmonton Police Service was in the matter of the photo-radar contract issue.

Reporters were assured the investigation into the latest EPS case would be performed by officers whose professional duties were nothing short of full criminal investigation.

Oakes nevertheless appealed to the public for assistance, asking those with information to contact RCMP Major Crimes at 780-916-8131, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.tipsubmit.com - a secure tip submission web site.

It was hoped that persons with knowledge of the matter, and who had not spoken to police earlier, could provide RCMP investigators with additional details.

With the police investigations underway, the media took its turn at learning more of the woman at the centre of the incident.

The Edmonton Sun was the first to identify her as Jeanette Lapointe, and additional details of the incident came from their interview with landlord Fiore Bruno.

A few days before the shooting, Bruno tried to give Lapointe an eviction notice. She wouldn't accept it, tearing it up and burning it.

The woman has fallen behind a few times on her rent, and three months previously Bruno tried to evict her but she refused to come out of her suite.

"She flipped out a few times," said Bruno.

The landlord was given the rent for June but was told July wouldn't be paid for as the woman wanted to buy a television and stereo.

On the night of the shooting, Bruno again tried to serve his tenant with an eviction notice. After knocking on the door of Suite 7, Lapointe came out with a kitchen knife and chased him out of the building.

"She had a knife in her hand and said, 'I'm going to kill you,' " Bruno said. "I was trying to keep my distance."

Another tenant was told by Bruno to call the police. Lapointe returned to her apartment and Bruno waited outside.

After police arrived, Bruno and the two officers went inside the building to speak with Lapointe. After knocking three times, the landlord and the officers went outside to discuss their options.

Lapointe then emerged from the building's entrance brandishing the knife, Bruno alleged.

"She opened the door and said 'I'm going to kill you.' The police tried to talk to her but she ran upstairs. They went after her, probably to take the knife away. I'm all shaken up.

"I heard this shot and I was scared."

"I thought seeing the police, she'd change her mind," Bruno said. "If I had known it would have come to this, I wouldn't have called the police."

Other tenants of the building told various media that Lapointe was annoying.

A man who lived directly below the woman's suite, Gordon Suvee, said he heard her yelling and running around in her suite every day.

"She would just about drive me crazy sometimes, screaming her head off," Suvee said.

"I told the landlord, get rid of her or else she's going to hurt someone someday."

The man said he heard police were called after the woman pulled a knife on the landlord.

"Many times I would go tell her to shut up," Suvee said. "She'd cool down for a while, then start up again."

Caught sunning himself on his balcony, neighbour Chris Bird described the woman as unfriendly and a recluse.

"She tended to go off the handle every now and then. No one wanted to talk to her."

Bird was asked to describe what he knew of the shooting.

"They were trying to batter the door. All I heard was, 'Open the door, open the door.' " Then he heard the gunshot.

"Boom! I thought they just fired it into the ceiling as a warning shot but I guess it didn't."

Bird said the woman was in her fifties and had lived in the building for about 8 years.

"As long as I've been here I've never had any problems with her – she's usually quiet unless she gets into one of her yelling sprees.

"The only time I saw her was when they hauled her out on the stretcher. She couldn't have been hit too bad because she was doing her darndest to get off the stretcher."

Bird said the woman lived alone in an apartment that was spotless and nicely furnished on the one occasion that he saw it.

"She was someone who kept to herself," Bird said. "She wasn't close to anybody."

Anhson Nguyen, owner of a food store kitty-corner from the eight-suite building, said the woman stopped by regularly for cigarettes and groceries. He described her as about five feet tall with short brown, spiky hair.

"She's very strange," Nguyen said. "She didn't talk to anybody."

Neighbours said the woman had no visitors and didn't know if she had family in Edmonton.

The picture of the woman at the centre of the story changed when the Edmonton Journal revealed that she had endured extreme poverty, sexual abuse and mental illness – but remained proud and independent.

Members of her family said the nearly 60-year-old woman had serious psychiatric problems and behaviour traits that some people found disturbing, but had never been violent.

Nearly a week after the shooting, she remained in critical condition at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

"As a family we are just appalled she was shot," her niece, Lynn McNeill, said from Moncton, New Brunswick.

"We can't believe it. She's just a small woman and she's never hurt a fly in her life."

McNeill agreed with her aunt's neighbours that she would often yell and talk to things that weren't there. She also provided the newspaper with a sketch of the woman's past.

Lapointe grew up in the coal mining village of Minto, about 50 kilometres northeast of Fredericton. Both her parents were illiterate. With her father's meager income as a coal miner, the Lapointe children often went hungry.

Jeanette was sexually abused by a neighbour when she was a teen. Her father, out of ignorance, beat her after she reported the abuse to police.

A short marriage offered little relief, as her husband was also abusive, according to McNeill. In her early 20s, Jeanette left the relationship after her baby died. It was then she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Members of Lapointe's family moved west to Alberta for work in the early 1970s. Jeanette joined them, bringing with her a fierce sense of independence, McNeill said.

Jeanette always supported herself and until about six years ago she worked as a seamstress at an Edmonton sport clothing firm.

Her family returned to New Brunswick about seven years ago and McNeill tried to talk Jeanette into returning with them. She refused, saying she didn't want to leave her furniture in Edmonton.

She has had little to do with her family for years, McNeill said.

The Journal caught up with her landlord, Fiore Bruno, who questioned why police shot her instead of using a Taser.

"I hope she pulls through OK," he said. "I didn't think this would happen."

Bruno said he had trouble with her before because of her screaming and the damage she caused to her suite, but he didn't want to kick her out.

"I was afraid she would end up on the street," Bruno said. "I put myself in her shoes. She wasn't a threat to anyone, but probably no one would take her."

Also questioning the use of lethal force was Austin Mardon, a mental health advocate who lives with schizophrenia.

Mardon also wondered why two relatively inexperienced officers were sent instead of the Police and Crisis Team, a Capital Health partnership comprised of police and mental health workers.

The advocate said police who don't have experience dealing with people with mental illness can often be overwhelmed. Actions like aggressive body language, often used to control a situation, can actually make things worse if the person is psychotic, according to Mardon.

A month later after being shot, Jeanette was almost well enough to be released from hospital. While her wounds had mostly healed, for her family painful questions remained.

"Really, all they had to do was back off a little bit," nephew Russ McNeill told the Edmonton Sun. "It seems like they backed her into a corner where she had no way out," he said.

With the RCMP investigation underway, little in the way of details regarding the shooting were made available. But McNeill offered some insight ... and some questions based on what he learned of his aunt's injuries.

According to doctors, the bullet passed through her stomach and into her intestine, colon and femur. This suggested a downward trajectory, McNeill said.

He felt this was at odds with police accounts that Jeanette posed a threat.

McNeill also questioned why police didn't try to calm the situation. "Basically, they chased her down through the apartment," he said.

The man also passed judgement on what sparked the dispute. To him, Jeanette's trouble with the rent because she had bought a TV was an indication she hadn't been taking her pills.

"Normally, that's not a capital crime in this town," he said.

Less than 24 hours after Lapointe's shooting, police were again called to the Inglewood neighbourhood for a knife complaint after reports of a man stabbed in the neck came in.

The man was rushed to Royal Alexandra Hospital in serious condition and was expected to survive his injuries. A female suspect was sought by police.

Edmonton's last police-involved shooting occurred June 29th, 2006 when Darren James Cardinal unexpectedly fired his gun at Const. Daniel Furman.

Furman, wearing light body armour, took three or four rounds – one of them in the lungs. His hand was also extensively damaged.

The officer and his partner returned fire and up to 13 shots were volleyed at Cardinal with at least nine finding their target. The man died in hospital. A year after the shooting, Furman had yet to return to active duty.

In a parallel to the Inglewood shooting, Furman and his partner both had less than three years of service.

The Inglewood apartment building where the woman was shot was described as "rundown."

In recent years the neighbourhood has seen an influx of what one area resident termed "a criminal element," and police vehicles and ambulances have long been a common sight along 124th Street.

In addition to the now-usual sprinkling of crack-shacks, one apartment building – Parkland Gardens at 11530 124 Street, less than a block away from the shooting – was the target of a recent police Report-a-Drug-House initiative.

One neighbour told the Edmonton Sun there was a "steady stream of johns being brought to [a] suite by five or six prostitutes."

While covering the story, a Sun reporter was told by a tenant they would need "back-up" before entering the building.

Neighbours have long complained of open prostitution along the once-proud street. Reports of break-ins, vandalism and car theft are common.

In a report released in May 2007, a City of Edmonton study (opens as a .pdf) gave the Inglewood neighbourhood a "quality of life" rating of 18.79 out of 100, with crime statistics nearly triple the city average.

More about recent violent crime the Inglewood neighbourhood can be read here.

On September 10th, 2008 RCMP K Division announced they had completed a seven-month long investigation of the LaPointe shooting in January 2008 and had subsequently forwarded their file to Alberta Justice's Special Prosecutions branch for review.

The RCMP reported the branch had recommendeded that no criminal charges be sworn in relation to their investigation of the conduct of the members of the Edmonton Police Service involved in the July 6th, 2007 occurrence.

The RCMP's investigation of the matter was now complete, according to their media release.

The next day, on September 11th, 2008, Edmonton police charged Janet Mary Lapointe, 60, with aggravated assault, three counts of assault with a weapon, uttering threats to cause death or serious bodily harm, and possession of a weapon.

In making the announcement on the heels of the just-completed RCMP investigation, Edmonton police revealed previously withheld details of the July 6th, 2007 incident.

According to a statement released to media, after police were called to an apartment at 12402 115 Avenue to settle a landlord-tenant dispute, two officers unsuccessfully tried to speak with the female tenant allegedly involved.

The woman had reportedly threatened to harm her landlord and had chased him from the building armed with a knife.

After a period of time, while officers were talking with the landlord, the tenant was observed approaching the main apartment doors, still armed with the knife.

In response, the officers pursued her and a struggle ensued between the accused and one of the officers on the third floor.

During the struggle the constable was stabbed, with the knife striking the officer's ballistic vest.

At this point, the other officer discharged a single round from his service pistol, hitting the accused once in the abdomen. The woman was then arrested within her apartment.

The officer stabbed did not require any immediate medical treatment, and the woman was taken to hospital.

Police stated she had since recovered from her injuries. The landlord was unharmed during the incident.

The handling of the Lapointe matter recalled that of one man shot by police in 2006 and foreshadowed the fate of another shot in 2008.

On July 27th, 2006 Kirk Steele was shot six times by Const. Bruce Edwards after he allegedly refused police demands to stop and drop a knife after jumping out the bathroom window of a house. During the incident, Edwards' service dog Wizzard was stabbed.

On November 2nd, 2007 the Edmonton Police Service announced that newly-promoted Sgt. Bruce Edwards would face no charges in connection with Steele's shooting. Edmonton police had conducted a criminal investigation into the matter, which was reviewed by the RCMP and then reviewed again by the Crown prosecutor's office in Calgary.

They also announced that a day prior to the announcement Steele had been charged with possession of a weapon, obstructing a police officer and escape from lawful custody.

On August 4th, 2008 Steele filed a million-dollar statement of claim against 70 defendants suggesting police had crossed the line when they shot him.

On September 12th, 2008 Edmonton police charged 26-year-old Percy Walter Davis with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public and assaulting a peace officer.

About a month earlier, on August 8th, a man waving a knife outside Abbottsfield Mall was shot by Edmonton police. Witnesses told media the man refused to drop the knife when ordered to do so by an officer. After a brief standoff, the officer shot Davis twice.

In making the announcement, police noted that due to the fact the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team was continuing to investigate the officer's role in the Davis shooting, no further comment could be provided by the Edmonton Police Service.

deadmonton 2007 - other police matters - woman shot by police in Inglewood neighbourhood