Severely wounded, a Calgary police officer made a last-ditch attempt to stop an allegedly armed and violent suspect Saturday afternoon — dropping him with a bullet.

It was one of two unrelated incidents in the space of about an hour Saturday where a cop made the choice to open fire.

Deputy Chief Trevor Daroux said after hitting the suspect with a taser failed and the suspect had struck the officer with a large bladed weapon, the lone officer shot the suspect inside a department store at crowded Marlborough Mall in the city’s northeast.

The incident started moments earlier, around 2 p.m., at a nearby LRT platform, where police were called for reports of a man with a weapon fighting with several other people.

Witness Kayla Perrin told Postmedia what she saw of that part of the incident.

“I was coming off the 45 (bus route), and when I went up the stairs I saw a little altercation going on,” she said.

“Then, I turned around they looked like they were just fighting and arguing. He pulled out a knife and started chasing somebody.”

“It was a white guy, he was wearing a Blue Jays shirt and a red hat,” she added.

“It kind of looked like a machete,” she said of the weapon.

The man had fled by the time officers arrived but was soon found behind a dumpster by a patrolling officer who chased him into the mall, where gunfire would soon erupt.

Daroux said the officer, who’s in stable condition in hospital, was “severely wounded” in the altercation.

“This officer showed extreme courage and restraint and we’re very fortunate that it isn’t more serious than it is,” Daroux said.

Daroux also said the suspect was critically injured by the bullet that struck him but has since been upgraded to stable.

The suspect is known to police.

About an hour earlier, around 1 p.m., another officer opened fire during an incident at the BlackFoot Truck Stop in the city’s southeast although in that case nobody was hit.

The incident started with a traffic stop gone sideways, Daroux said — it’s alleged the officers who pulled the vehicle over spotted a rifle on the seat beside the driver and the driver threw the vehicle into gear and tried to flee.

Daroux said at that point an officer felt the danger was sufficient to open fire, and after that the vehicle drove into a gas meter, causing a gas leak, and then struck a power pole before coming to a stop.

The male driver who fled was arrested after a foot chase, as was a woman also inside the vehicle.

Again, Daroux praised his officer.

“We train for it, we hope that it doesn’t occur but it can happen,” he said.

“I can’t speak enough about the courageous efforts of our officers and the work that they did. Our officers did an amazing job and I stand behind them, as does the entire service.”

The officer in the Marlborough Mall incident has been with the CPS about two years.

The officer who opened fire in the Blackfoot Truck Stop incident has roughly 20 years with the CPS.

Both incidents will be investigated by the provincial police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.</s>A member of the Calgary Police Service remained in hospital Sunday in serious but stable condition after he was severely injured in a machete attack at Marlborough Mall Saturday afternoon.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has since taken over the investigation into the officer’s role in the incident, which unfolded early Saturday afternoon.

The incident started at around 2:10 p.m. MT when police were called to a complaint of a man causing a disturbance near the Marlborough LRT Station. The suspect, a 20-year-old man, was found hiding behind a dumpster. When he was approached by police, the suspect ran into the Marlborough Mall Sears store.

“I was coming off the bus to go on the train and I saw an altercation and all of a sudden a guy was chasing some people with a knife and he ran into the mall and a bunch of cops showed up,” Kayla Perrin, who witnessed part of the ordeal, said Saturday.

Officers followed the suspect into the mall where officers said the man pulled out a machete. Susan D. Hughson, the executive director of ASIRT, said the police officer used his Taser on the suspect but “it appeared to have no observable effect on the man.”

When the officer pulled out his gun, the suspect struck him with a machete, Hughson said Sunday.

The suspect was then shot by the officer. He was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery. He remained in hospital Sunday in serious but stable condition.

The officer was taken to hospital with what Hughson called “significant and severe” injuries.

READ MORE: Officer ‘severely injured’ after possible machete incident at northeast Calgary mall Saturday: Police

Hughson said ASIRT has good surveillance video of the events that unfolded inside the Sears store.

“Some witnesses have referenced a machete earlier,” she said. “When he’s in the store, however, you can see him pull a machete from a sheath. That’s part of the unfolding events in the Sears store. It wasn’t visible, obviously visible, when he entered the store.

“It’s a very good thing that no one died in that incident,” she said Sunday.

The machete was recovered by police on scene. Hughson said it was recently purchased. The blade of the weapon was 48 centimetres long, she said, adding the entire machete measured about 66 centimetres.

The actions of the police officer are now under investigation by members of ASIRT, which is called in any time a person is seriously injured or killed during an incident involving police.

The Calgary Police Service remains in charge of the investigation regarding the 20-year-old suspect.

Watch below: Global News coverage of the machete attack at Marlborough Mall Saturday, Sept. 17</s>CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — A Calgary police officer was severely injured after being stabbed following a chase into a shopping mall.

Acting Chief Trevor Daroux said Saturday that an officer responded to a fight on a transit LRT line and then later chased a suspect into the mall.

Daroux says the officer used a Taser on the suspect who pulled out a knife. The officer then shot the suspect.

He says both the officer and the suspect are hospitalized in stable condition.</s>At the core of its investigation, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team will determine what motivated a young man to wound a police officer with a machete during a brazen attack at Marlborough Mall Saturday afternoon.

 

 On Sunday, ASIRT, which has launched two separate investigations, provided an update on two unrelated officer-involved shooting’s that occurred in Calgary on Saturday afternoon.

 

 “It’s a very good thing that no one died in that incident,” said Susan Hughson, executive director of ASIRT.

 

 Just after 2 p.m. Saturday, a Calgary police officer shot a 20-year-old, machete-wielding assailant at the Sears in Marlborough Mall, after the perpetrator slashed the officer, who endured severe and significant injury. The machete, 48 centimetres long, was purchased recently, Hughson said.

 

 Earlier that day, around 1 p.m. at Blackfoot Truck Stop at 1840 Ave SE, another Calgary police officer shot at a vehicle, after the driver drove forward in the direction of the policeman. The driver had what appeared to be a rifle in the passenger seat and wasn’t obeying the officer’s commands to not start the vehicle.

 

 A 15-year-old girl was also in the car, and was apprehended without any charges.

 

 The machete-wielding man, 20, received emergency surgery at Foothills Medical Centre on Saturday and is in serious but stable condition. The officer, Hughson said, is in serious but stable condition.

 

 ASIRT is asking the public to come forward if they have any information regarding the two incidents.</s>A Calgary police officer and another civilian have been taken to hospital after a serious incident occurred at Marlborough Mall Saturday afternoon.

 

 Around 2:15 p.m., EMS said first responders were called to treat two patients. One of the patients was a Calgary police officer, EMS said, adding the officer was taken to the Foothills Medical Centre in stable, non-life threatening condition with soft tissue injuries.

 

 EMS said the other individual was taken to the Foothills in critical, life-threatening condition.</s>A police officer was severely injured after a struggle with a man at a Calgary shopping mall on Saturday and used his service firearm to defend himself.

Calgary police say a suspect attacked the officer with a “large bladed weapon” after police received reports of a fight at a nearby light rapid transit station.

“Injuries with respect to edged weapons, it’s inches where it can be fatal and this officer showed extreme courage and restraint,” acting chief Trevor Daroux told a news conference late Saturday.

A suspect fled before police arrived but an officer spotted the man hiding behind a dumpster.

The suspect initially ran into the Marlborough shopping mall in the city’s northeast, but turned to confront the officer with the weapon.

The officer first used his Taser, but it was ineffective so he discharged his service firearm, police said.

A police news release was unclear as to whether the suspect was wounded by a bullet only saying he was taken to hospital and is in stable condition.

The officer suffered severe injuries but is in stable condition, police said. Earlier Saturday Calgary EMS spokesman Nate Pike described the wounds as soft-tissue injuries and said they were not life threatening.

Daroux said the suspect is known to police.

Jason Qian, who works in a store at the mall, said the incident happened at a Sears outlet.

He said normally the most trouble that happens at the mall is shoplifting and a violent incident was totally unexpected.

“It’s a total surprise,” he said. “There were kids playing around, like 50 yards away.”

Eli Kortia came after the incident to do some shopping at Sears and found it blocked off by police.

“It came as a surprise, I’ve not seen this at Sears ever before.”

Later Saturday afternoon, five police vehicles remained outside Sears. The store was closed off, but shopping continued in the rest of the mall.

A children’s play area remained busy not far from the Sears entrance.

A handful of officers were milling about the entrance to Sears into Saturday evening. Other officers were apparently gathering evidence and taking photos outside in the parking lot.

The province’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, has been called in to review the incident.</s>The risk to the public was tremendous, Calgary’s police union boss said of a man allegedly armed with a 20-inch machete in the middle of a crowded department store Saturday.

Howard Burns said the officer who drew the line between himself and the public as he was being slashed, gunning the suspect down before he could hurt anybody else, was the right thing to do.

“He wasn’t acting in a rational manner and he was armed with that,” Burns said.

“He was a tremendous danger to the public.

“Our officer obviously did the right thing because if somebody like that goes unchecked somebody else is probably going to be killed.

“That’s why the police are out there — to protect the public from situations just like that.”

Sunday the officer was doing well following surgery — the relatively junior member of the police force took blows from the blade to the shoulder and arm.

The suspect is stable following surgery as well, though he was in critical condition in the immediate aftermath of being shot.

Most of the battle between the Calgary cop and the 20-year-old suspect at the Marlborough Mall Sears store was captured by video surveillance cameras.

Alberta Serious Incident Response Team executive director Susan Hughson said the amount of video her people have is considerable, and of good quality.

Hughson said Sunday the lone officer chased the suspect through the store, hitting him with a Taser to no avail before it came down to a pistol versus the suspect’s machete.

There’s been no word yet on potential charges against the suspect.

Hughson has Edmonton investigators in Calgary helping out the local ASIRT team as the province’s police watchdog has a look at the Marlborough Mall incident as well as another unrelated incident occurred just an hour earlier.

In that incident, Hughson said, an officer opened fire as a truck was driving toward him in the Blackfoot Truck Stop parking lot.

Before that the officer had approached a suspicious vehicle, Hughson said, and spotted a rifle in the front with the 23-year-old driver.

It’s then alleged the driver threw the truck in reverse and slammed into another vehicle before taking a run at the officer.

Unharmed by the gunfire, the driver struck metal posts and a gas metre, triggering a gas leak, Hughson said, and then got out and tried to flee on foot before being hit with a Taser and taken into custody — he’ll face charges and was also wanted on an outstanding warrant.

Police pulled a 15-year-old girl from the truck as well.

“She had very little involvement in the incident,” Hughson said, adding it’s not clear what her relationship with the suspect is.

Hughson said it’s difficult to say just how long the investigations will take.

“How the officers conducted themselves is the very subject of our investigation — our job is to determine, through the evidence, whether the officers’ conduct was reasonable and justified, or whether there was an unreasonable level of force used,” she said.

“And it’s equally as important to find that the force used was reasonable as it is to hold an officer accountable when the force used is not.”</s>Calgary EMS spokesman Nate Pike says first responders were called to the Marlborough Mall in the city's northeast.

Pike says a Calgary police officer was taken to hospital in what is described as stable, non life threatening condition with soft-tissue injuries.

He says a second patient was also taken to hospital in critical, life-threatening condition.

Jason Qian, who works in a store at the mall, said the incident happened at a Sears outlet.

He said normally the most trouble that happens at the mall is shoplifting and a violent incident was totally unexpected.

"It's a total surprise," he said. "There were kids playing around, like 50 yards away."

Police could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pike said he doesn't believe the officer's injuries were the result of a firearm, but he said he didn't know what caused the injuries for the other patient.

Later Saturday afternoon, five police vehicles remained outside Sears. The store was closed off, but shopping continued in the rest of the mall.

A children's play area remained busy not far from the Sears entrance.</s>A witness told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that she saw a confrontation involving three men and a woman unfold outside at the Marlborough Mall. One of the men was brandishing a large knife, chasing the others, but he ran into the shopping center when police arrived.

Shoppers later told the CBC that they saw paramedics taking a man out of the complex on a stretcher.

Nate Pike, a spokesman for Calgary EMS, told reporters that the officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries while the second individual was in critical condition.

Pike declined to comment on the nature of the wounds or provide any further information about the incident.

Representatives of the Calgary Police Service could not be reached immediately for comment.

Pike, seen on a video posted on media websites, spoke from the parking lot of the mall, which houses more than 100 stores. Photographs posted on the internet showed multiple squad cars and mounted officers gathered outside the entrance to a Sears store, one of the shopping center's anchor tenants.

A Calgary EMS duty officer later declined further comment, referring to all inquiries to police.</s>A Calgary Police Service member and one other person were taken to Foothills hospital after shots were fired at Marlborough Mall Saturday.

Details remain scarce, but officials on scene were able to confirm that shots were fired, and subsequently, that two people were taken to hospital.

An unidentified person in serious, potentially life-threatening condition, while one cop was sent to hospital in stable condition.

Witness Kayla Perrin told Postmedia the incident began near the adjacent C-Train station.

"I was coming off the 45 (bus route), and went I went up the stairs I saw a little altercation going on," she said. "Then, I turned around they looked like they were just fighting and arguing. He pulled out a knife and started chasing somebody and then ran into the mall."

Perrin said she caught a glimpse of the suspect.

"It was a white guy, he was wearing a Blue Jays shirt and a red hat," she added.

More to come...
An unidentified suspect chases people with a machete outside the Malborough CTrain station in Calgary, Alberta and injures 2 inside the nearby Marlborough Mall, including a police officer. The injured officer shoots the suspect who remains in critical condition.