Melanie Hambrook loved to paint. She worked as an insurance broker. She was a mother. And on June 21, she was shot and killed by Calgary police on Deerfoot Trail.
Her family has now come forward to name her, more than two weeks after the shooting, and to push back on how her death has been described. We covered the shooting when it happened, when Alberta's police watchdog took over the investigation.
https://www.culturealberta.com/articles/a-woman-is-dead-after-a-calgary-police-officer-shot-her-during-a-traffic-stop-on-deerfoot-trail-asir
What the family is adding now is who she was, and a set of questions they say have not been answered.
"The way it happened was awful, and the narrative is not very good," said Adam Vaananen, Hambrook's ex-husband and the father of their 16-year-old child. "I hope there's justice. I hope justice happens."
A mother, a painter, an insurance broker
Hambrook was 53. Her family describes an artistic woman who painted and worked as an insurance broker, and who struggled with her mental health in ways they say never made her dangerous.
"She was not violent. She was not suicidal. She did have mental well-being issues. But I don't believe she was a threat," Vaananen said.
Her son, John Vaananen, said the news of his mother's death left him in shock. "She was a really good mom," he said. "She really loved me all she could. I was her prized possession." His last memory of her, he said, was a phone call while she was driving between Medicine Hat and Calgary.
Vaananen said ASIRT investigators arrived at his Edmonton home around 2 a.m. on June 22 to tell him what had happened. "The wind was taken out of us, and words can't convey how I feel about what happened," he said.
What ASIRT says happened on Deerfoot Trail
The account released by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, the province's police watchdog, lays out a sequence that the family's description does not easily fit, and reconciling the two is what the investigation now has to do.
According to ASIRT, Calgary police were called at about 4:17 p.m. on June 21 after multiple reports of an erratic driver near the Deerfoot Meadows shopping centre. Police said they believed the same driver had been driving erratically and fleeing officers over the previous 24 hours. Officers found the compact SUV on the northbound side of Deerfoot Trail between Memorial Drive and 16 Avenue N.E. and used police vehicles to box it into the far-left lane at about 5:30 p.m., closing traffic in both directions.
The driver stayed inside the vehicle. ASIRT says initial information from officers indicated she had a knife, and that officers tried to speak with her while she remained in the SUV. For about 20 minutes, according to the agency, officers monitored her and assessed the situation before approaching the passenger side of the vehicle.
Officers then broke the front passenger window and deployed pepper spray. ASIRT says the woman got out and moved toward officers, at which point they used a projectile launcher and a conducted energy weapon, and one officer fired a police rifle. A knife was recovered. She was given emergency medical care at the scene and taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, where she later died. No officers or members of the public were injured.
ASIRT has said the specific sequence of events remains under investigation, and noted that body-worn camera footage from the officers exists and will be part of its review.
"This was a mental-health situation"
For Hambrook's family, the objection is fundamental: they see what happened as a health crisis that ended in a death, not a crime.
"This was not a criminal situation; this was a mental-health situation," said Darcie Vaananen, Hambrook's sister-in-law, who says she knew her for two decades. "I can't see the justification of shooting her. There are too many questions that I have."
John Vaananen said he did not think it was unreasonable to want some answers while the investigation continues. "I think they should tell us a little bit."
Neither Calgary police nor ASIRT has confirmed Hambrook's identity, which is standard while an investigation is open. The name comes from her family.
What happens now
The Police Review Commission has directed ASIRT to investigate the shooting as a Level 1 matter, the category under Alberta's Police Act for incidents involving serious injury or death, or serious allegations about an officer's conduct. ASIRT's review will examine the actions of the officers involved, including the force they used. Its involvement is routine in a death like this and does not by itself indicate wrongdoing.
No timeline has been given for the investigation. The family has started a crowdfunding campaign to help cover legal and funeral costs.
This is an ongoing investigation, and we will update this story as ASIRT releases more.
Sources:
Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), initial public release on the June 21 Deerfoot Trail officer-involved shooting, June 26, 2026
Police Review Commission, Level 1 designation and investigation scope
Calgary Police Service, statements on the June 21 response and prior erratic-driving reports
Statements from family members Adam Vaananen, John Vaananen, and Darcie Vaananen
Culture Alberta, original coverage of the June 21 shooting
