Edmonton police officer shot and killed in line of duty

Edmonton Police

Daniel Woodall was the named constable that died in an Edmonton shootoff. Const. Woodall was to serve a warrant when he was fatally shot as he approached the house.

A police officer in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was shot and killed in the line of duty Monday night — the first time such a tragedy struck the police force in 25 years.

“This is a very difficult time for all of our officers and their families and loved ones,” the Edmonton Police Service wrote in a series of somber tweets announcing the death of 35-year-old Cst. Daniel Woodall.

Another Edmonton officer, Sgt. Jason Harley, 38, was shot in the lower back in the same incident, but was treated and released from a hospital, the department said.

The officers were shot while executing a warrant for criminal harassment at a foreclosed home in southwest Edmonton, the Edmonton Journal reported.

Sometime after they arrived, shots were fired from inside the home, and soon afterward a house in the area was on fire.

Police responding to the fire urged residents in the area to stay indoors, and to not post any updates about the incident on social media.

“You are NOT safe to be observing anywhere near here,” Edmonton Cst. Brendan Power tweeted.

Edmonton Journal

Edmonton police respond to a house fire in the area where two officers were shot, one fatally, while trying to arrest a resident.

He added about an hour later: “Media / onlookers, please don’t post any pictures of our officers, other emergency crews or their locations. You’re putting them at risk.”

A male suspect for the shootings remained at large for several hours.

Around 2:30 a.m., the department

One neighbor near the house, Angela Wall, told the Edmonton Journal she heard 10 to 13 shots fired.

“This is normally a quiet neighborhood,” she told the paper.

Woodall was a married father of two children, and an eight-year veteran of the force working for the department’s hate crimes unit. He died on the scene.

“His job was to protect all of us from harm, victimization and from criminal activity. We will forever be in his debt for his actions this evening,” Chief Rod Kencht said in a press conference Monday night.

“But far greater impotance: A wife is without a husband tonight, and two young children are without a loving father.”

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