LLOYDMINSTER – A public inquest has been set into the shooting death of Trent Byron Angus who was shot and killed by RCMP on Feb. 27, 2022, during a raid on an industrial building in Waseca.
The inquest is scheduled to run from Feb. 10 – 14, 2025, but is subject to change, Kerri Ward-David, senior media relations consultant for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, said in an email. The location hasn’t been determined.
An inquest had been ordered after the Saskatoon Police Service conducted an independent, external investigation surrounding Angus’s death.
Following a four-month drug and weapons trafficking investigation police investigation, the Battlefords RCMP Gang Task Force had executed a search warrant for the property located along Highway 16 about 42 kilometres east of Lloydminster, with help from Saskatchewan RCMP Critical Incident Response Team. Officers had surrounded the commercial building in Waseca just before midnight on Feb. 26, 2022.
During the raid, two men and one woman exited the building but a fourth person, Trent Angus, stayed inside and wouldn’t comply with police commands, said RCMP.
When Angus exited the building he still wouldn’t comply with police commands, said RCMP, so they used non-lethal methods to force him to comply. Officers said, however, that they saw Angus display a firearm and gunfire was exchanged. An RCMP officer received a non-life-threatening injury during the incident.
At the time of his death, Trent Angus was wanted by Cut Knife RCMP for a firearms complaint on Little Pine First Nation that occurred on Nov. 28, 2021. Police had issued a warrant for his arrest and charged him with discharging a firearm, pointing a firearm, possession of a firearm knowing unauthorized, and failing to comply with a release order.
The SPS investigation looked into the shooting, as well as into notification of next of kin and utilization of victim services.
In February 2022, Trent Angus’s older sister Lori-Ann Angus told SaskToday that added distress was placed on the family by how they perceive they were treated by police.
“They didn’t even notify the family. My mom had to call.”
Lori-Ann Angus said Trent Angus’s passion was working on vehicles at his industrial shop in Waseca.
“He was always working on vehicles at the shop there. That's what he liked doing, working on vehicles and fixing vehicles. And that's where he was that night when they went there and snuck up on him.”
Lori-Ann Angus remembers her brother as "a really good father to his four children." He had a fifth baby on the way at the time of his death, she said.
