‘Shoot me’: No charges for RCMP in killing of Alberta boy who called 911 for help

EDMONTON – Hoss Lightning, 15, was scared and alone the night he called 911 for help and was shot and killed by a pair of responding Mounties in a field south of Edmonton.

A decision by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, the province’s police oversight body, says the teen’s death, while tragic, was not criminal and the two officers involved won’t be charged.

The agency’s acting executive director, Matthew Block, says the officers believed the boy was pointing a gun at them from inside a backpack. 

No gun was found.

“It is not reasonable to expect an officer who believes he is about to be shot to act like a perfectly calm and rational person,” he says in the report released Thursday.

“When a person pretends to point a gun at a police officer and that officer reasonably believes that a gun is being pointed at them, the officer does not need to wait to confirm his belief.”

It was early in the morning on Aug. 30, 2024, when RCMP got the 911 call from Hoss near a McDonald’s in Wetaskiwin, south of Edmonton. He told the dispatcher he was being followed by people trying to kill him and that he had threatened the Hells Angels.

The report says police video shows an officer driving up to Hoss. The two have a talk and Hoss allows the officer to go through his shoulder bag and to pull out a large machete. The boy also turned over a knife from a fanny pack. 

After the officer spoke to a supervisor, the boy was told he was going to be taken to a group home. The boy said he didn’t want to go. The officer then told Hoss he was going to be searched for more weapons, but the boy refused, says the report.

“You can’t pat down me,” the boy says in the video.

“I’ve given you instructions,” the officer replies. “This is all for your benefit and for your safety.”

The boy reached into his backpack and pointed in the officer’s direction, as if aiming a gun, says the report.

Hoss ran away, and the officer radioed for backup.

“He pretended that there was a gun in his knapsack and went to shoot me with it,” the officer told dispatch. “I did not actually see a firearm, um, but that was a little harrowing.”

Police found the boy in a grassy field, close to a local pawn shop. The officer got out and told the boy four times to come out with his hands up. A second officer arrived, but the boy kept walking towards them while raising his backpack, the report says.

Security video footage shows Hoss emerging from the grass, yelling “Shoot me” and “Pull the trigger.”

An officer warned the boy he’d be shot if he didn’t listen and the recording captures the sound of numerous gunshots.

The report says 17 shots were fired and officers shot at the boy for up to four seconds after he fell to the ground.

He was handcuffed and taken to hospital, where he later died.

An autopsy found he died from a gunshot wound to his chest. Investigators later searched the boy’s backpack and didn’t find a gun.

“While these events are tragic, that does not make them criminal,” Block said. “Based on the evidence collected … there are therefore no reasonable grounds to believe that either subject officer committed a criminal offence.”

After the shooting, Opposition NDP politicians and leaders from Samson Cree Nation, where the boy lived, called for police reform and better de-escalation training for officers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2025.