Gwendolyn Richards, Okotoks, Alberta (Calgary Herald) – The husband of an Okotoks town councillor was shot and killed by RCMP following an armed confrontation early Sunday morning in the small community south of Calgary.
The death of Corey Lewis shocked neighbours and family friends who said he was a man committed to his family — including his wife, Naydene Lewis, the couple’s five-year-old daughter and Naydene’s three sons from a previous marriage.
“He was devoted to his children. He loved his family,” said Shelley Taylor, a friend of the Lewises who lives nearby.
“She’s still trying to get her head around this,” Taylor said of Naydene.
As investigators from the RCMP and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team examined the scene in front of the house on Alcock Street, neighbours related how the confrontation unfolded the evening before.
Officers were called out to the home around 7:30 p.m. Saturday night for a report a man had struck a teenage boy.
About a half-hour earlier, those living across the street heard a woman scream and then what sounded like Naydene telling her children to get in the house, said a man who did not want to be identifi ed.
“She just told the kids to get in the house,” he said.
Later, Naydene and her teenage son, who appeared to be covering up a bloody nose, spoke to an officer at the end of the street before more cruisers began to arrive, said neighbour C.J. Hannis-Burrows.
Officers arriving at the Lewis home were confronted by a man holding a shotgun.
RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said the man threatened officers and refused to put the gun down.
Officers moved away from the house and called in the Emergency Response Team.
A number of residents on the street were ordered by police to leave their homes — some bunking at the local recreation centre for the night, while others found places to stay with friends or family.
Bernie Mahar-Wieser had just gotten his three children to bed and was about to start playing cards with his in-laws when they noticed four officers were standing just beyond their front yard. Then the guns came out, including a shotgun, Mahar-Wieser said.
One officer approached the family. “He said, ‘Take the family and go now,’ ” Mahar-Wieser said.
They left to stay with relatives, while other neighbours were told to stay inside.
The emergency response team arrived around midnight.
Charlene Shaw was peering through the blinds in her front window when she saw 10 men dressed in black and carrying automatic weapons walk beside her house toward the Lewis home.
Then she could hear an officer trying to speak with Lewis and draw him out of the house, she said.
“They were trying to be calming,” Shaw said, noting she heard police say: “Your family is OK . . . If you want to talk, we have people you can talk to.”
Around 2 a.m., police said Lewis emerged quickly carrying what appeared to be a weapon.
“It was very unexpected. He was carrying something,” RCMP’s Webb said. “It looked like he was charging out to attack.”
A member of the emergency team shot the man.
Neighbours said they heard up to five shots.
Lewis was taken to hospital in Calgary where he later died.
He was a good guy and a good neighbour, Dwayne Dollmaier said Sunday.
“I’m shocked. He’s a really level guy,” he said. “He was good with the kids.”
A profile posted on the town’s website said the family moved to Okotoks from Calgary, and Naydene “longed to raise her family in a small town where she is an active community volunteer, even getting her kids involved.”
Her fellow town councillors were also left shocked and saddened by the incident.
“As colleagues, we’re going to be there to support Naydene and her family through this,” Beth Kish said.
Deputy mayor Ralph Wilson, a former RCMP officer who spent eight years in charge of the Okotoks detachment, said news of the armed confrontation brought back “unfond memories.”
“I’ve seen my fair share of these types of incidents, unfortunately, in my past. Being on the other side of it, this time was different,” Wilson said. “It’s got the whole town upset with the death of Naydene’s husband. Did it need to happen? Could something have been done differently?”
Officials with the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team — a provincial body that examines police-involved deaths — are investigating the circumstances around the shooting.
The head of the team, Clifton Purvis, is expected to make a comment today.
Through family friend Taylor, Naydene has apparently asked for people not to send flowers, suggesting she would be setting up a trust fund in her daughter’s name.
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