Police officer cleared in shooting of suicidal man in Oakville, Ont., hotel

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Ontario’s police watchdog says a Halton region police officer had reason to believe his life was in danger when he fatally shot a 41-year-old man in a hotel lobby in Oakville last fall.

The Special Investigations Unit says the officer had no way of knowing the man – who kept his right hand in his jacket and repeatedly yelled at police to shoot him – was in fact unarmed.

SIU director Tony Loparco says the officer didn’t have the luxury of checking whether the man had weapons “given the tension that prevailed at the time and the rapid and dynamic series of events that immediately preceded the shooting.”

The SIU investigation found police responded to a call around 5:30 a.m. from a man who said he was in a hotel armed with a knife and gun and planned to kill himself.

The agency says the officer went into the lobby, saw the man there and asked him to show his hands.

It says the man first refused, then moved quickly toward the officer with his hands above his head, prompting the officer to shoot five times.