Violence towards police in Alberta highlighted as Mountie hit, dragged during arrest

Global News

6 days ago

Four people are facing charges after a vehicle theft arrest that Alberta RCMP say highlights the increase in violence towards law enforcement.
It happened just after midnight on Tuesday, north of Edmonton, where an officer from the Morinville RCMP detachment was trying to conduct a traffic stop on a stolen truck parked at the Shell gas station in Gibbons.
Cpl. Troy Savinkoff with the RCMP media relations team said the officer had run the licence plate and the truck came up as stolen out of Woodland County (northwest of Edmonton) a few days prior.
When the Mountie went in to arrest the four people in the truck, things went sideways.
'He initially was detaining them and had advised them of that, upon which time the driver attempted to flee by putting the vehicle in reverse,' Savinkoff said in an interview with Global News on Thursday.
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Body-worn camera video released by RCMP showed how after the officer, standing by the open passenger side door of the truck, asked for the people's IDs and said they were in a stolen vehicle, the driver attempted to drive away.
'This left our officer with not a lot of other choices in this case. He had jumped into the passenger side of the vehicle, reached in and was able to take the vehicle out of drive, take the keys out of it, subsequently stopping the vehicle.'
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RCMP body-worn camera video shows how an arrest in Gibbons on July 29, 2025 led to an RCMP officer from Morinville having to jump into a moving vehicle and seize the keys from suspects trying to flee in a stolen truck. Alberta RCMP
During the struggle, RCMP said the truck was moving and hit a tree. The officer suffered minor injuries, Savinkoff said.
The officer then demanded the occupants get out and on the ground, while also radioing for help.
'It became very clear that the driver wasn't really listening to him.'
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RCMP said the driver was seen pulling a shotgun out from between the seats of the truck.
'Then he kind of went out of view and the officer later determined that the individual had thrown the shotgun into the box of the truck,' Savinkoff said.
In the video, the arresting officer can be heard noticing what appeared to be a firearm, which a man is heard denying exists.
'What do you have in your hands? Where'd that thing go?' the officer says to the driver, who sat down on the ground beside the truck and raised his hands, replying with, 'Nothing.'
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Then, the officer looks inside the box of the pickup.
'That's a shotgun, man!' the officer says incredulously before the video ends.
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RCMP body-worn camera video shows how an arrest in Gibbons on July 29, 2025 led to an RCMP officer from Morinville having to jump into a moving vehicle and seize the keys from suspects trying to flee in a stolen truck. Alberta RCMP
Eventually, all four people were arrested and remained behind bars ahead of court dates, which were slated for Thursday.
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A search of the suspects and the stolen truck led police to finding and seizing small amounts of meth and fentanyl, a false bill of sale, and a sawed-off shot gun and ammunition.
The incident on Tuesday is a scenario police in Alberta are facing daily, Savinkoff said.
'With each of these arrests, there are risks.
'These aren't oftentimes people that are willing or wanting to go with police. A lot of times they are dangerous, they're armed, and there's a risk to policing. So while we tout our successes, we also want to be aware that policing is dangerous.'
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Click to share quote on Twitter: "These aren't oftentimes people that are willing or wanting to go with police. A lot of times they are dangerous, they're armed, and there's a risk to policing. So while we tout our successes, we also want to be aware that policing is dangerous."
Stolen vehicles are rarely just stolen for the sake of it, he said.
'Somebody who steals a vehicle, quite often that's not the only crime that they're committing. We see linkages with drugs, with weapons, with break and enters to homes and with stolen vehicles.'
1:59
RCMP bust organized crime vehicle theft ring that exploited Alberta registry loophole
RCMP said there's a ripple effect that affects the public.
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On Wednesday, telecommunications giant Telus said it's experienced an 80-per cent increase in copper theft across Canada in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of 2024. In July alone, the company saw 20 copper thefts in Alberta alone — nine of which occurred in Edmonton.
Telus said the traditional copper lines have been the primary target, disrupting wireline voice services, Internet and Optik TV.
'Whether it's stealing copper wire from utilities, which increases your utility costs, stealing your vehicles, breaking into your homes — they're doing lots of different things and stolen vehicles are just one segment to that,' Savinkoff said.
Since 2023, instances of assault on police with a weapon or causing bodily harm have increased 23 per cent, said Darcy McGunigal, the detachment commander of the Morinville RCMP.
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'While we highlight dropping CSI crime rates and the most recent 18 per cent drop in stolen vehicles compared to last year, don't forget that with each of these arrests there are men and woman on the front lines putting their safety at risk combating these prolific offenders,' McGunigal said in a statement.
On average, there are acts of violence towards RCMP in Alberta about 2.2 times a day.
It was a statistic shared earlier this week after an alleged armed man was found in the fenced parking lot of the RCMP detachment in Sherwood Park, where a confrontation led to an officer shooting the man.
'When we talk about that number, 2.2, that means every single day, Alberta RCMP are subject to 2.2 acts of violence — whether that's an assault, assault with a weapon,' Savinkoff said.
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Police shooting in gated parking lot at Sherwood Park RCMP detachment
Savinkoff said a large number of injuries come from suspects ramming police cruisers in an attempt to get away.
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'So while we're out there proactively combating these issues that everybody feels very passionately about, something to keep in mind, it is getting more dangerous out there for our officers.'
Four people were arrested and charged in Gibbons.
The alleged driver, Ryan Calvin Grant 42, from Onoway, was charged with:
• Possession of stolen property over $5,000
• Possession of stolen property under $5,000
• Weapons offences (x4)
• Drive a motor vehicle while prohibited(x2)
• Assault a police officer with a weapon
• Fail to comply with a condition of an undertaking (x4)
• Possession of a controlled substance
Three other people from the vehicle were also charged.
Cassandra Joy Bruno, 34, from Alexander First Nation, is charged with:
• Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000
• Possession of stolen property under $5,000
• Weapon offences (x4)
• Possession of a controlled substance
• Possession of a forged document
Michael James Racicot, 38, of no fixed address, is charged with:
• Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000
• Weapon offences (x4)
• Fail to comply with release order (x3)
Jo-anna Elaine Nussey, 42, of Minburn Alta. is charged with:
• Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000
• Weapons offences (x4)
• Fail to comply with probation order (x2)
• Fail to comply with condition of undertaking
• Breach of Peace bond
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Alberta RCMP are expected to share more about violence against officers at an upcoming news conference. The date and time has not yet been released.