Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared Cobourg police of any wrongdoing after determining a woman fatally shot herself in their presence in May 2017.
According to SIU director Tony Loparco, there are no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against a police officer who was on the scene with a 24-year-old woman on the morning of May 24.
In his extensive report, Loparco explained that around 9:45 a.m., police were called to a Blake Street residence after a caller indicated shots were going to be fired. Police set up a perimeter and the woman called again indicating she had intentions to shoot herself.
Loparco said officers attempted to help her and tried to convince her to drop the shotgun. However, around 11:20 a.m., she fired one shot, suffering “severe trauma to her head resulting in her death.”
The SIU director concluded the two officers in the residence followed proper policies and reached out for all the available resources to try to help the woman.
“It is clear that the Subject Officer spoke with the Complainant at length and with both calm and compassion, and that he never abandoned his attempts to save her life, until after she had pulled the trigger causing her death,” he wrote.
Loparco said evidence showed the woman planned to take her own life.
“From writing out a suicide note, a will and a consent form, to contacting police in order that her mother not be the one to locate her body and to loading and arming herself with a shotgun.
“While it is unclear what exactly pushed the Complainant to the brink and caused her to resort to the drastic decision to end her own life, it is clear that the senior officers tasked with attempting to save the life of the Complainant, and the officers under them, did all that they could to try to save her life.”
In his report, Loparco praised one officer (known as Witness Officer #9) who “went above and beyond the call of duty” to attempt to help the woman in the days leading up to her death.
Loparco noted family and friends were aware the woman was depressed and upset and had sought assistance from hospital and church officials. She also attended the Cobourg Police Service to speak with the chaplain. That’s where she met WO #9 who talked extensively with her and offered to take her to the hospital.
However, Loparco says the woman declined so the officer apprehended her under the Mental Health Act “for her own safety.”
But the SIU director says a doctor briefly reviewed the woman and advised she was not suicidal and that she was free to go. The officer returned the woman to the detachment to meet with the chaplain.
The same officer had another “lengthy conversation” with the woman after she called for help on May 23, Loparco said.
On the morning of the shooting, the woman requested to speak with WO #9 who was off-duty at the time and could not be reached before her death.
“His getting up on his day off, after having worked a 15-hour shift, with the intent of rushing to the scene to assist the Complainant in her ultimate time of crisis, speaks of a dedication and compassion that is a tribute to the CPS and policing services everywhere,” Loparco wrote.
“As such, I would like to take this opportunity to commend WO #9 for his actions, despite the tragic outcome, and acknowledge that his patience and unflagging willingness to assist the Complainant likely brought her great comfort in her final hours, as witnessed by the fact that she again sought him out just prior to taking her life.”
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