Disciplinary action against two Calgary Police Service officers in the fatal shooting of a man in a northeast Calgary motel room ten years ago will be withdrawn.
The reasons cited in a letter to Anthony Heffernan’s family for dropping the allegations against the officers included the length of time that has passed since the incident and that the penalties would likely be too light.
“Our son was shot and killed,” Anthony’s mother Irene Heffernan told Global News. “It’s very, very serious.
Heffernan was 27 years old when he was fatally shot in a room at the Super 8 motel on Barlow Trail on March 16, 2015. Police were called to do a wellness check on a guest not responding to requests to leave.
Five officers responded to the scene, and indicated Heffernan was “potentially intoxicated or in distress,” before entering the room and shooting him.
It was reported Heffernan was holding a needleless syringe.
In the wake of the shooting, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team recommended criminal charges be laid against Const. Maurice McLoughlin, but Crown prosecutors declined and suggested there wasn’t sufficient evidence for a conviction.
Since then, McLoughlin and two other officers involved have retired or resigned from the CPS, which means they no longer can face internal disciplinary action.
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The two other officers involved — Const. Sandeep Shergill and Staff Sgt. Lon Brewster — were set to face disciplinary charges at a hearing on Monday.
The allegations against them included unlawfully entering the motel room and failing to consider “tactical goals and risks.”
However, a Sept. 9 letter sent to Heffernan’s family from the lawyer tasked by CPS as the presenting officer in the case indicated the disciplinary charges will be dropped.
“If the allegations are sustained after a hearing, it is likely to result in a very small or insignificant penalty,” said the letter from Derek Cranna of Field Law.
“It is also an unfortunate fact that the incident occurred 10 year ago, and the delay in reaching a disciplinary result may be used as a mitigating factor in sanction.”
Cranna also noted in his letter that the allegations don’t involve intention misconduct, and while their actions “allegedly fell short of acceptable police standards” in instances where there were signs of medical distress and a perceived need to act quickly, their conduct “did not fall significantly below those standards even if proven.”
Tom Engel, a lawyer who represented the Heffernan family, said the decision to drop the internal charges didn’t come as a “huge surprise,” for him but is nevertheless devastating for the family.
“In the end, no police officer is being held accountable for what happened leading up to the killing of their son and it’s just a disgrace,” Engel told Global News.
“It’s a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
Heffernan told Global News the dismissal of the charges is “very concerning and frustrating” for her family.
“We are the voice of Anthony and we are not going to just take this lying down,” she said.
According to Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Mount-Royal University, the impacts to public trust in policing in cases like these are “significant.”
“The general public are going to be skeptical that the process was fair,” he said. “I think the process was probably procedurally fair, but it didn’t result in justice for the victim.”
A spokesperson for CPS confirmed disciplinary charges against the two officers are expected to be withdrawn at the Police Act hearing on Monday.
“The outcome of this incident was terribly severe, especially for the Heffernan family, and we acknowledge this has been a very difficult process,” CPS said in a statement.
The statement added that CPS is unable to provide additional information until the hearing concludes, but noted reasons for the withdrawal of the charges “will be provided transparently.”
The Heffernans do plan to meet with Calgary police chief Katie McLellan to discuss the case and the process, hoping their decade-long search for accountability doesn’t come to an end.
“We plan to pursue this,” she said.
“This is our son. Who wouldn’t do this for your son?”
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