Fatality inquiry examines RCMP actions in fatal shooting on QEII Highway

An Alberta judge will review evidence from a fatality inquiry this week in Leduc that examined why and how RCMP shot and killed a 27-year-old man on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway more than five years ago.

Justice Jeffrey Champion heard testimony Tuesday related to events on May 6, 2020, when Phillip Blair shot at officers several times before police shot him dead on the side of the highway after a high-speed pursuit.

Local RCMP detachments were looking for a suspect who had shot and injured a woman at a home in Blackfalds, north of Red Deer before fleeing the scene.

Father wanted to call

RCMP initially responded to a gun complaint in Blackfalds. When officers arrived, shots were fired at their vehicles and the suspect, Blair, fled the scene in a black BMW and headed north.

Testimony at the Leduc courthouse this week revealed that the RCMP had insisted negotiators deal with the high-risk situation, instead of letting Blair’s father, Robin Blair, call his son.

“I think I was in a good position to de-escalate the situation,” Blair told the court.

Robin Blair, an active Red Deer peace officer on shift, was a former Red Deer RCMP member.

He was asked to come into the Red Deer detachment that morning as the event was unfolding.

The watch commander on duty, Staff Sgt. Angela Gilchrist, told Blair that they believed his son was the suspect in a firearms incident in Blackfalds at about 8:15 a.m.

“You didn’t want me to contact my son,” Blair said, looking at Gilchrist on the stand. “What was the purpose of that?”

“I was trying to get his number to the negotiating team for them to reach out to your son,” she replied.

Blair did give the officers his son's phone number, but the inquiry heard Wednesday that RCMP did not contact him.

Pursuit

Staff Sgt. Duane Brown, the incident commander leading up to and including the shooting, described the events as one of the highest risk levels for RCMP.

At 9 a.m., Brown said he issued an all-channels bulletin to central Alberta detachments, directing members to go to Highway 2 but not to engage directly with the suspect.

An Alberta Serious Incident Response Team report released in May 2024 said Blair’s BMW was spotted near Ponoka. An unmarked RCMP vehicle began to follow him.

At 9:27, Blair started to accelerate up to 180 km/h at a juncture of highway 616, where marked RCMP vehicles were situated, the report says.

Brown told the court that they tried to do everything to stop the pursuit and slow down the suspect.

Members laid down a spike belt, which Blair drove over. He then crossed over the grassy median south of Leduc, and started to drive north in the southbound lanes into oncoming traffic.

Video evidence

Video captured on RCMP dash cameras and played at the inquiry shows Phillip Blair getting out of his vehicle and firing his semi-automatic shotgun at police before throwing down the weapon.

Officers approach Blair from various angles and several gunshots can be heard on the video.

“They fired their weapons back to stop the threat,” Brown said.

One RCMP member was injured during the incident.

Robin Blair asked Brown whether his son was contacted by "any member of the RCMP in an attempt to de-escalate the situation?"

“Not that I'm aware of,” Brown replied.

The autopsy report, as part of the ASIRT findings, said Blair had seven gunshot wounds. Two shots came from in front of him, one from the left and to his front, and one from behind. A toxicology report shows cocaine, marijuana and alcohol were in Blair's system.

Jennifer Stengel, a lawyer for the inquiry, said she didn’t call any of the RCMP members who pursued and shot Blair that day to testify because the video evidence showed what happened.

The ASIRT report released last year concluded that the subject officers' actions were "reasonable in this extreme situation."

'He had so many friends'

Phillip's mother, Denise Kelly, travelled from Kamloops, B.C. to attend the inquiry and told CBC News about the son she remembers.

“He had so many friends. Everybody loved him. He never had enemies. He was funny. He was energetic.”

She believes her son, who was employed as a welder in Red Deer, had been associating with a bad crowd of friends.

“It's just been a total shock how substance can ruin the lives and put you in another state of delusion and hallucinations and make you into somebody you're not.”

In an interview with CBC News Wednesday, Blair said his son's actions on the day of the shooting were out of character. Still, he acknowledges his son's actions "were not appropriate by any stretch of the imagination.

"They were dangerous, violent. People were getting hurt and injured.”

In a teary closing statement at the inquiry, Blair apologized on the family’s behalf for his son’s behaviour that hurt people, physically and emotionally.

“The apologies you put forward certainly weren’t necessary,” Champion told Blair.

Champion said that even if Blair had spoken to his son that day, it may not have made a difference.

“I hope you don’t spend the rest of your lives with that kind of regret.”

Champion says it’ll take several months to write the report, which will include recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths in the future.