SIU clears OPP in 2019 shooting

An Ontario Provincial Police officer was legally justified to shoot and injure a man during a violent takedown last October, the Special Investigation Unit says.

Shortly before 2 p.m. on Oct. 9, OPP officers in unmarked cars had surrounded the 26-year-old suspect, who was driving a Mercedes sedan on Berry Road in Etobicoke, near Park Lawn Road.

There was a warrant for his arrest, but the SIU report released Thursday doesn’t specify what he was wanted for.

When officers tried to arrest the man, he drove his car at them, the SIU report said. One of the officers drew his gun and fired at the windshield, injuring the suspect’s hand.

The officer explained that he fired his weapon believing it was necessary to

“thwart an imminent risk of death or serious injury to him and his fellow officers” from the car, the report said.

The SIU said some evidence suggested the suspect feared for his safety because he thought he was surrounded by a street gang. But the car’s passenger was immediately aware they were police.

SIU director Joseph Martino said it could be concluded that the suspect had little regard for the officers’ lives, as the car then continued to ram a police truck in front of him in an effort to escape.

The other officers surrounding the Mercedes as it repeatedly struck the truck also believed their lives and the lives of their colleagues were in peril.

“I am satisfied that the (officer’s) apprehension of the danger that existed and the necessity of a resort to lethal force were reasonable in the circumstances,” said Martino.