A decade after Anthony Heffernan was killed by Calgary cops, review board dismisses family’s appeal of police investigation

The parents of Anthony Heffernan, an unarmed 27-year-old who Calgary police shot in a motel room in 2015, have had their appeal of a limited Police Act investigation into his killing dismissed.

Calgary cops were called to the Super 8 in northeast Calgary for a wellness check on Heffernan on March 6, 2015. They broke into his room and found him holding a needleless syringe and lighter.

Within 72 seconds police shot Heffernan four times and killed him. One of the officers claimed he’d “lunged” at them.

At an Oct. 28, 2024 Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) hearing, Irene and Patrick Heffernan outlined their objections to how the disciplinary process proceeded against Calgary Police Service (CPS) Const. Sandeep Shergill and Sgt. Lon Brewster—the only two of the five officers who were at the scene of Anthony Heffernan’s killing who are still police officers.

Calgary police chief Mark Neufeld, who wasn’t chief at the time of Heffernan’s killing, initiated disciplinary investigations into Shergill and Brewster in September 2020—more than five years after Pat and Irene Heffernan filed a professional standards complaint against the officers.

In its Jan. 7 decision, the LERB ruled that the “chief’s decision was reasonable, the investigation into the appellants’ complaint was not tainted, flawed or grossly inadequate, and dismisses the appeal.”

The Heffernans made four allegations against Shergill and Brewster:

  1. Unlawful or unnecessary use of authority for entering Heffernan’s room without a warrant.
  2. Negligence for “failing to adequately consider tactical risks and goals before entering the room.”
  3. Insubordination for discussing the shooting with each other before being interviewed by investigators. 
  4. Making false statements for Brewster’s allegation that Heffernan “lunged” at him. 

Neufeld proceeded with the first two complaints but dismissed the third and fourth.

The LERB decision noted that for the appeal to have been successful, the Heffernans had to identify how Neufeld’s decision not to investigate two of their allegations was unreasonable, or that the investigation “was compromised, tainted, flawed, or grossly inadequate.”

According to the ruling, Neufeld “exhibited the requisite degree of justification, intelligibility and transparency to constitute a reasonable decision.”

It added that the board couldn’t “identify any flaw in the investigative process such that it lacked transparency or completeness, or that it was tainted in some other way that would result in the investigation being grossly inadequate.”

The decision noted that the Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled “that the board must show deference to the chief’s conclusions.”

Shergill, Brewster and Neufeld all had lawyers present at the hearing, but the Heffernans couldn’t afford legal representation, the decision acknowledges.

In 2016, Alberta’s police watchdog recommended criminal charges against Const. Maurice McLoughlin, the officer who shot Heffernan, but Crown prosecutors declined to proceed, and McLoughlin resigned before the chief could initiate an investigation.

The Heffernans told the Calgary Herald, which first reported the LERB decision on Jan. 10, that they were unsurprised by the hearing’s outcome.

The lack of accountability is “what we’ve seen for the last 10 years,” said Irene Heffernan.

A fatality inquiry into Anthony Heffernan’s killing isn’t expected for another two years, Patrick Heffernan told the Herald.


connect