Alberta's police watchdog to investigate after man shot by RCMP officer at Ponoka courthouse

Alberta's policing watchdog is investigating after a 39-year-old manwas shot by an RCMP officer Thursday morning outside acentral Alberta courthouse.

The officer fired hisgun around 9:30 a.m. during an altercation with an armed suspectoutside of thePonokaprovincial court building.

RCMPCpl. Troy Savinkoffsaid the shooting took placeafter policereceived a report of a personapproaching the Ponoka RCMPdetachment while holding a weapon.

The detachment, located downtown,is near the town's courthouse building, which was locked down after the shooting.

It's believed the manwas near the courthouse by coincidence, Savinkoff said.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has been called in to investigate, he said.

"At this time, we don't know what his motivations are," Savinkoff said in an interview with CBC News.

"Obviously, ASIRT will be investigating the officer's conduct as it relates to the confrontation itself," he said.

"Simultaneous to that, we will have RCMP officers who will be investigating the motivation as to why the individual was coming to the detachment, into that area, armed."

Savinkoff said he could not saywhether the victimfiredhis weapon or how many shots were fired in the incident.

Officers on scene provided first aid to the victim until emergency medical services arrived, RCMP said.

The injured manwas airlifted to Edmonton's University of Alberta Hospital with critical injuries,a spokesperson for STARS Air Ambulance told CBC News.

The officer was unharmed.

ASIRTinvestigates events where serious injury or death may have been caused by police, as well asserious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.

Ponoka is about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton.