A man was shot and killed during an armed standoff with police south of Calgary on Saturday night.

Officers were responding to a domestic situation at around 7:30 p.m. MT in Okotoks, about 40 kilometres south of Calgary.

Police say an adult male had allegedly struck a teenager.

When officers arrived, they were confronted by a man holding a shotgun.

Mounties say he refused to put the weapon down and allege he threatened officers on the scene.

The man did not respond to efforts to communicate with him after the RCMP's Emergency Response Team (ERT) was called in.

The standoff continued until 2 a.m. when the man suddenly walked out of the home carrying what police say appeared to be a firearm.

He was shot by an ERT member and later died in a Calgary hospital.

His name and age have not been released.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, a police oversight agency that has jurisdiction over all sworn police officers in the province, is investigating.

Two men are dead after an SUV — whose driver earlier failed to pull over for a police officer — crashed into a Calgary home and burst into flames.

Vivian Forno, who lives next door to the bungalow in northeast Calgary, said she was on her way to bed at about 1:30 a.m. MT Wednesday when she heard the crash.

"I heard this huge bang. The house shook," she told CBC News. "The police officer was the first to the scene. It was within seconds of the crash, we had a police car already here."

Calgary police Const. Jens Lind noticed a suspicious vehicle at about 1:20 a.m. near Fifth Street and 14th Avenue N.E., said police. He followed the Jeep for several blocks before activating his marked cruiser's lights and siren to get the driver to pull over.

The driver ignored Lind, who is with the canine unit, and sped off.

The officer then turned off the cruiser's siren and lights and did not pursue the vehicle, said Roy Fitzpatrick, assistant director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), the unit that handles death or injury cases involving the actions of police officers.

"There's no indication from what we have that this was a pursuit, no, more a traffic stop and that would have been it," said Fitzpatrick.

The officer continued to search the area for the Jeep and found it three minutes later.

It appeared the SUV rolled several times before it slammed against the house in the 800 block of 10th Street N.E. and became engulfed in flames.

Passenger died later in hospital

Amateur video shot by a neighbour shows Lind arriving at the scene and retrieving a fire extinguisher from the trunk of his cruiser.

He makes his way to the Jeep, shines his flashlight into it and then sprays it a few times with the extinguisher. Four minutes later, Lind can be seen dragging a limp body from the vehicle as other officers arrive.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, while the passenger died later in the hospital.

John Dooks, head of the Calgary Police Association, said the officer followed proper protocol when faced with a personal risk as well as a hazardous vehicle fire that could release toxic gases or cause an explosion.

"A delayed response is not one that would concern me at this time," Dooks told CBC News.

"The officer's duties are first of all to check on people in the area, the residents of the building ... even determine if there's anybody in the vehicle because it's not uncommon for offenders in stolen vehicles — once they abandon them — to set them on fire."

A 52-year-old woman in the bungalow where the SUV crashed, as well as an officer, were treated for minor injuries.

With files from the CBC's Erin Collins

An Alberta RCMP officer is in hospital with severe injuries after a piece of evidence in an investigation exploded in his hands.

The officer, with 12 years on the force, was handling the unidentified item on Monday afternoon at the Kitscoty detachment, near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, said the RCMP.

He was taken to the Lloydminster hospital by ambulance but his injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Another officer and a civilian staff worker who were nearby were blown off their feet by the blast but not seriously hurt.

The detachment has been closed and secured for further investigation, including why the object was in the office, RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said in a news release.

Investigators haven't determined exactly what the device was but say it was a small explosive.

Lethbridge -  By CBC News, cbc.ca A snowstorm that has shut down Lethbridge and other parts of southeastern Alberta is being felt in Calgary, which is under a wind warning.
Power is starting to be restored to thousands of people in Lethbridge, a city of 90,000, after a blackout of several hours, said Lethbridge Mayor Bob Tarleck.

Heavy, wet snow and high winds overnight paralyzed the city on Wednesday.

"Our schools were all shut down. Our hospital was operating on an emergency basis which meant they weren't doing any elective surgery and they weren't doing any imaging programs," Tarleck told CBC News.

No serious injuries were reported from the storm.

"Drivers drove carefully. That was nice because we had no traffic lights," said Tarleck.

About 18 centimetres of snow fell in Lethbridge overnight, according to Environment Canada. Another five to 10 centimetres of blowing snow are forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

"I live just outside the city. I have 10-foot trees with trunks that are about eight inches across. They are lying on their side in my front yard," said Dori Modney, news director of Country 95 FM in Lethbridge.

Emergency response centre activated

Crews are still working on power lines, felled by heavy snow, across southeastern Alberta.

Tarleck said the city did not declare a local state of emergency but the local emergency response centre was operating at level one of a three-stage response system.

"We had asked people to dramatically reduce their water consumption because we didn't know how long this might go on. And we weren't able to produce any new water so we had to make do with the water that we had and we thought that might be into tomorrow before that was fixed," he said.

The storm and unstable electrical service also shut down the historic Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Fort Macleod.

Winds gusting to 90 km/h

The RCMP closed Highway 4 between Milk River and Lethbridge because of poor driving conditions. Police are advising people to stay home unless travel is absolutely necessary.

A wind warning was issued for Calgary on Wednesday morning, with gusting up to 90 km/h.

Calgary police closed Sixth Avenue S.W. between Sixth and Seventh streets — while Calgary Transit shut down the Seventh Street platform — because of strong winds blowing debris from a nearby building. Firefighters are working to secure the area.

A winter storm warning, which includes dangerous weather conditions, is still in place for Drumheller, Three Hills, Brooks, Strathmore, Vulcan, Lethbridge, Taber and Milk River.

A blizzard warning is in effect for Hanna, Coronation, Oyen, Medicine Hat, Bow Island and Suffield.

Two people died in a shooting at a west Edmonton car dealership on Friday.

Just before 7:50 a.m., a man with a gun walked into Great West Chrysler near Stony Plain Road and 178th Street and started shooting, police said.

"Police arrived on scene and they found that three males had been shot," said Edmonton Insp. Denis Jubinville.

Two people were already dead: the man believed to be the gunman, identified by sources as a suspended employee named Dave Burns, and Garth Radons, the parts manager at the dealership.

A third person was wounded and taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The dealership was sealed off as homicide investigators worked the scene Friday morning. Police did not believe the man held any hostages.

Sheri Motowylo's husband, Mike, brought his truck in for some work and was inside the service department when the gunman opened fire. Her husband told her everyone inside hit the floor when shots were fired.

"He was pretty shook up when he called, but he's OK now," Motowylo said, "It's, I guess, pretty hectic in there right now."

Mike Motowylo, along with other witnesses, were kept inside the dealership after the shootings to talk to police about what they saw.

Dealership employee Maxwell Sesaoi was told to go home after he showed up for work Friday morning. Sesaoi has worked for Great West Chrysler for three years and said he had never had any problems with anyone.

"Everybody's really friendly around here," he said. "Everybody is trying to help each other around. I have never, never in my life had a confrontation or argument with any of the workers."

About 30 people work in the dealership's service department, Sesaoi said.

By CBC News, cbc.ca