Halifax police mum on whether officer shot stabbing suspect from inside cruiser
The bullet just missed his groin.
Dominic Caldi had been hit in the femoral artery. He’d been shot by a Halifax Regional Police officer in front of Clayton Park Junior High school the night of Aug. 24.
Four shots were fired from inside the police car, according to a close relative. Each bullet went through the passenger-side window.
The woman asked not to be identified because she’s concerned about upsetting other family members.
After the shooting, HRP issued a news release saying that one of its officers had shot a man armed with a gun. The man, not identified in the release, had been shot after pointing a gun toward the officer. Caldi had been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Caldi “almost bled to death,” said the relative. He had surgery and is now being held in the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.
The Serious Incident Response Team, Nova Scotia’s police watchdog, is investigating the shooting.
Police were looking for Caldi because he was a suspect in a stabbing earlier in the evening. They went to an apartment on Willett Street, about a kilometre away from the school on Plateau Crescent.
Caldi faces 11 charges from the alleged stabbing. The most serious are attempted murder, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm.
Police allege that before Caldi was shot he fired a gun in the apartment and stabbed a person who was known to him, then fled on foot.
The relative said Caldi had visited the apartment that day and got into a fight with a woman there. She said the woman was throwing dishes and other things at him, and he grabbed a kitchen knife to defend himself.
She said he cut her with the knife and she was treated at the scene by paramedics. The family member said the gun — a shotgun — wasn’t Caldi’s and was already at the apartment. He accidentally fired the gun, she said.
After the fight, Caldi left with the gun, intending to hide it. She said he was high at the time.
Something a neighbour saw appears to back up part of her story.
A man who lives on Plateau Crescent said he saw broken glass where the police car had been parked. He lives across the street and said he heard the officer yell “Drop the gun,” then heard shots.
When he looked out the window, he saw a police officer standing in front of the car with his arm outstretched, holding a handgun.
There are marks on the wall where four bullets hit the school.
The man said the confrontation lasted less than 30 seconds.
HRP was asked about whether any shots had been fired from inside the police vehicle but neither the force nor SIRT would talk in detail about the incident until the investigation is done.
