RCMP cleared in shooting of Curtis Hallock “The Horse Whisperer”

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has concluded that the shooting of a man in northern Alberta last summer was justified in the circumstances.

The man, Curtis Hallock, who appeared in the reality series Mantracker, was shot in the leg and arm and required surgery for his wounds. but survived the shooting.

The shooting happened on Aug. 1, 2013, after RCMP responded to a report of an alleged impaired driver going north on the highway near Grande Cache. A review of the incident by ASIRT says officers found the vehicle suspected in the impaired driving and followed it to the Victor Lake Métis Co-op residential area.

The ASIRT report says RCMP briefly lost sight of the vehicle, but officers found it again and were approaching on foot when “an altercation occurred resulting in the two police officers discharging their police service weapons.” The report says the driver fled on foot and was arrested later.

He was treated in hospital for his injuries.

The ASIRT statement says executive director Clifton Purvis found the two RCMP officers were justified in shooting in the circumstances. The statement says ASIRT can’t release any other information about the incident because the charges against the suspect are still before the courts.

After the incident, Hallock was charged with one count of assault with a weapon, one count of assault of a peace officer and three counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. (But not impaired driving or fleeing from a police officer)

He told the Journal at the time that he felt police “took it a bit far that night.”

Hallock appeared in the second season of the Outdoor Life Network series Mantracker, where he was known as “the Horse Whisperer.”