Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared three Toronto police officers in the shooting death of a 30-year-old man last year.
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) found there were no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the officers following the incident on March 4, 2016.
It began in Ottawa when a man allegedly stole a vehicle and committed an armed bank robbery. Ottawa police said the man was in possession of his family’s pellet gun, which closely resembled a real firearm and had been reported missing earlier in the day.
Ottawa police notified their counterparts in Toronto after the suspect was on route to meet a friend in the city. A sergeant was able to communicate with the woman who took a taxi with the suspect to an address on Bayview Avenue around 10 p.m.
Several uniformed officers in three police cruisers arrived in the area prior to the taxi’s arrival. The SIU said although it was night time, the area was well-illuminated by street lamps.
The taxi arrived at 10:08 p.m. where the friend exited the vehicle and walked to the front door of the residence. The three police cruisers pulled up to the address with one vehicle having the emergency roof lights activated.
The male suspect exited the taxi and stood outside the door facing the police officers. He appeared to be holding a black handgun at his right side and began shouting “what are you going to do?” at the police officers.
Police drew their guns, alerted the surrounding officers that the suspect was armed and repeatedly demanded the man drop the gun.
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The friend attempted to wrestle the firearm out of the man’s hand during the standoff between police. Officers directed the woman get away from the man, while continuing to yell for the man to drop the gun. He continued to yell at police “what are you going to do?”.
The SIU said the man extended his right arm and pointed the gun at one of the officers. In response, three of the four involved officers fired their guns at the man.
The suspect sustained eight gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead the following day.
The investigation revealed one officer fired between 12-13 rounds, a second officer fired between eight and nine rounds, and the third fired a single shot at the man. The fourth officer did not discharge his firearm but said he would have, had one of the other officers not been in his line of fire.
The SIU investigation interviewed 10 civilian witnesses and nine witness officers. An additional 11 witness officers were reviewed.
Director Tony Loparco said he had “no doubt” that the shooting was justified.
“The applicable provision of the Criminal Code is section 34(1) which provides the legal justification for the use of force in defence of self and defence of others,” Loparco said in a written statement.
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“Only after he raised his weapon and pointed it at one of the officers did the three officers discharge their firearms. All three subject officers clearly indicated that they fired their guns in order to end the threat of serious bodily harm or death that the man’s actions represented.”
The suspect’s weapon was later determined to be a CO2 pistol and the SIU found officers were entitled to treat it as a real firearm in the situation.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
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